hey hey hey. lorenzo marvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. earlier today president obama said that he wants to close down guantanamo bay promise to do this back in two thousand and eight but the prisoner remains open because republicans blocked him in congress will he be able to overcome republican fear and shutter one of the most shameful symbols of america's turned to the dark side during the so-called war on terror i'll ask our panelists and the night's big picture politics panel in just a mall also a well we've known for years the fossil fuels are killing our planet our leaders in washington have sat back and watched the world current now one new mexico county

has taken matters into its own hands and banned oil extraction within its borders this is the future of the fight against global warming and believe it or not the united states could learn a thing or two about social justice from bangladesh i'll tell you why i feel the. need to know this at a surprise press conference earlier this morning president obama told reporters that he wants to close the guantanamo bay detention center think it is critical for us to understand the guantanamo is not necessary to keep america safe. it is expensive. it is inefficient. is. hurts us in terms of our international standing it lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts it is

a recruitment tool for extremists. it needs to be closer than sen obama vowed to shutter the camp during his. initial presidential run in two thousand and eight but three months into his second term as president it remains open in as controversy as of or at least two thirds of guantanamo's detainees have now joined in on a hunger strike that a small group of prisoners started back in february to protest the living conditions and demand an end to their indefinite detention although the president has tried to close that facility or otherwise change the rules governing detainee treatment those attempts were blocked repeatedly by republicans in congress forcing him to continue the policies of the bush administration in two thousand and nine even issued an executive order that demanded that the prison close in a year but ended up postponing that closure window by six months and when congress blocked him again for intents and purposes frogs and toads and purposes get no remains open indefinitely while the population of detainees has significantly

decreased during his time in the oval office president obama has functionally continued his predecessor's system of military tribunals for guantanamo prisoners at guantanamo bay prison is an ongoing stain on the reputation of our nation a nation the prides itself on upholding basic human rights so it's in a time our government took a stand for our most fundamental values and close down guantanamo bay let's ask our guests of tonight's big picture politics pale. for tonight's big picture politics panel i'm joined by neil mccabe conservative commentator editor of the guns and patriots newsletter ok steiger managing editor of the ross story and bob parks member of the black leadership network of project twenty one and senior video producer at m r c t the welcome to all of you it's on to say to do good to have you with us. first of all neal do you think the president

serious here that he's going to throw enough political capital into this that maybe he can get the republicans to back down the list a lot of reasons why get. detention was a bad idea but i guess he was for that stuff previously always been opposed to get oh yeah well when you when you issue an executive order and then you rescind it you're kind of not i want to start in rescinded he was not able to get the funding from congress to close gitmo he was not able to maintain this case congress no he was not able to get the republicans to stop obstructing absolutely everything he tries to do as a way of trying to make his presidency look like a failed president when did the republicans take over congress they have been running the only eleven the the obama administration president obama had thirteen weeks out of the last four and a half years when he could actually get things through congress and then after thirteen weeks into the first year of his administration scott brown got sworn into the senate and then the republicans had forty votes and they were able to block everything that's been done in those thirteen weeks no he was not successful in

closing it all well i think fifty nine votes and control the house fifty nine votes in the senate and control the house is a pretty good hand. it's not it's better than it is and what do you have it has not kid one of these republican so terrified of it seems to me like they're always frightened little oh my goodness they're like superman they mostly kryptonite yeah and i agree with you i think that obama is serious about closing guantanamo bay i think he has been theories about it but he's been blocked at every turn in trying to do so i thought it was really interesting that eighty six of be prisoners at guantanamo bay. the charges have been dropped against them and yet they are not able to leave guantanamo bay because the funding is not available when our process can't work without congress authorized and i think if we had eighty six prisoners these charges had been dropped and they'd been indefinitely detained in america we would find that extremely unfair and horrifying and i'm not really sure why.

we should be held to this standard that when you know we obviously have a commitment to due process and these people haven't been charged with. with any kind of crime this is so destructive to the united states of america is it really such great value to the republican party that they're willing to damage the reputation of america and to blow up our basic principles of due process well you can blame the republicans the republicans who made us a campaign promise that he was going to close this place without doing some basic homework like maybe figure out where you want to put them because he had memories arguments about if memory serves no country wants them where home countries don't want them there so if you only have jails here we've got over one hundred to see there was a right now in those states you don't want them either all about not so very actually during private prisons all over those countries are allowed to take these

directories robert they had those debates and at the end of the day nobody there was a plan senator dick durbin of illinois wanted to basically move the detainees to a facility in illinois but that was sort of that was sort of squashed as sort of a. program in the in the senate by republicans and i think you see this and there are in definitely some conservative democrats as well who are who are main opposed to closing one town and i think it's such a hot topic political issue that people are really afraid to stand up for the rights of people who you know. are the untouchables and i think that's really unfortunate what do you do i mean if if if you knew there were no charges against them but you also knew that they were dangerous to america through even maybe even through no fault even if through no fault of their own they no become radicalized is that a concern or was going to you to the fault of the fact that america has been holding them for over a decade are you still in the u.s.

think would say it's important if we were to arrest you and you know you in jail for twenty years under false pretenses right and you finally get out should we all be afraid that maybe going to be a little p.o.d. at society and therefore we shouldn't let you out there we're saying we let people out when we figured out that they were innocent given the recidivism is the number of people who have been released. from get more already. well that's an how many of how many. you know i mean where's your number they shouldn't we just talked to one of the three diet but let's have an adult conversation cards up if these people are dangerous to the united states we should be aware of it and we should discuss it and they're not there they're don't know that we have innocent people because the bush administration was offering a five thousand dollars bounty which is like you know ten years worth of income in afghanistan to turn in your brother and walk if you don't like it and remember too that the the answer to get mo became drones because they didn't want to they don't

want to wrap guys up any more than just a set of them in a convoy so then at least at least there be a you might find some agreement with many like her early eighty two federal bacon's judicial positions and i mean this is become a really serious problem john roberts wrote a letter year and a half ago saying to the republicans basically stop blocking every nomination the president obama has the big one of course is the first circuit court the first circuit court of appeals based here in washington d.c. is the one that is like those stepping off point to to the supreme court a typically and b. is where cases like e.p.a. case and basically any of the federal agencies are decided there and right now you've got four republican appointees and three democratic appointees and three empty seats and so the republicans are running the first circuit court and so they keep knocking down labor laws they could knock down environmental laws president obama had an appointee for that court for two years the guy finally withdrew about what three four weeks ago i mean kay what are what what is the deal here at what

point do the republicans back down or back down is maybe even the wrong phrase at what point do they do what the constitution asks them to do and advise good set. judicial nominees i mean i agree with you i have to wonder if this couldn't be an intentional strategy to say you know there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the. and as long as those feet aren't being held you know they can't handle the case that they might otherwise be able to handle and i have to wonder if this isn't a strategy to make government seem like it's not working because they're withholding necessary personnel to make it work that's interesting the republicans i mean you know fema would browning was a classic example break it and then say oh it's broken i think i'm more inclined to think frankly that they're just thinking that they can hold out until two thousand and sixteen get a republican president in and now instead of two federal bacon judicial positions

they'll be like a hundred and they can just stay with republicans but you know i want to go along with the k. street theme strategy and we'd have a paralyzed court footstep for decades. of the cold goes have consequences now if memory serves in the bush administration when the democrats control the house and the senate and judicial nominations were being held up that was called patriotism it was called dissent it was called obstruction. and it was not happening anything that i was going to use the phrase strategic with your eye and there are over obstructionism but. you know that it's playing the politics it's always going to be that way during the bush administration not just my personal which you can't why you know but during bush administration when democrats in the block judicial nominees they always gave a reason it was usually you know this guy is a little to the right or roberts is your honour's george george bush who drew her nomination george bush throughout the nation honors don't want to have to it was

a fire started in the right not it was bill kristol who took down harriet miers it was not a democrat it was people on the right conservative review or whatever the publication is that you know they were saying you know perry admires the kid in the i was about are conservative but but the democrats always said here's the reason why republicans are simply saying we're not going to do it because you put your sick. just of him neal i think if your problem is if you're real concern his case loads then the president should start nominating republicans and they would get through i mean if your concern is empty seats i mean this is what you suppose as this is this is the solution to everything just given to the republican as he has always are because it's not about armstrong because there are no no tom it's all about politics and i've always thought he was i thought washington advisor quansah this is not about devil as it was or cool however the democrats got more votes for the how we still don't they are the white house they took the senate i think any republican senators could advise and said they'd give them eighty two names that would pass tomorrow yeah all of our dollars that we're going to will have will have

to come back here is perhaps our more of tonight's big picture politics panel right after the break. welcome to teal one out here you can feel it. there are three choices you like first used to work in a cooler go to live on a miserably like a slave. the second is to jump the wall and catch the can dream. most of their lives there. is to see come on the number of an organization and get inside the growing trade.

it was sounding will never forget. who. did it but i paid for what i've done it was never stopped. more news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations are only day.

while going back for tonight's politics panel i'm joined by neil mccabe case tagger and bob parks let's get back to it last week's garment factory collapse outside bangladesh killed at least three hundred sixty two people and hundreds remain missing bangladesh is the world's second largest exporter of garments but its workers make only about thirty seven dollars a month rescue workers have found branded clothing from bennington and children's place among others in the rubble this is the face of free trade apparently is it really worth it and perhaps more importantly bob. the guy who owned and built this factory in violation of building codes. is also a local politician he's in jail right now and they've frozen the assets of the five

companies the five factories that were operating there we still don't know even at least i don't the name of the company that owns that that plant down in west texas that blew up you know don't we have something to learn from bangladesh or i think of course one of the things that really bothers me when a lot of these things happen that transcends politics it's the lack of conscience with certain people with certain business owners i mean you can take advantage of lower wages in another country but put a few more exits i mean hard is that and trying to take care of people doesn't cost in the grand scheme of things them at least with our dollars the simple things to upgrade building codes. what happened there was beyond unconscionable and there was no there's the. there's no excuse i don't think there's anything political but it's getting late labeling too. if you want to call it greed yeah i

think it's i think it's even worse than that. you know book i wrote called what would jefferson do is talking about how you know the slave owners of our era look their slaves in the face and we have a sliver of america we have simply explored i'm curious how you respond to the problem with that is we were told right now i mean obviously we're not we're not talking sleeve slavery ok but it's something that is close and we're aware of the stuff and. that's where the problem's going to lie because in this country people are used to getting cheaper goods they have to be made somewhere would you want to made in a place like bangladesh or do you want the made in prison camps in some communist countries like north carolina where we used to you know used to be the textile capital of the united states well until well now we're going to get we'll go a little clinton signs now and. i think it just highlights how little we actually know about so many consumer products that we buy and i find that to be

really troublesome and i think if you want to have consumer goods that are ethical you have to incentivize them properly you know you saw something today but you know labeling of energy efficient actually turns conservatives off so you have to incentivize things in the right way you have to give people a good option you know i saw also when i when i read about elizabeth klein's work of her dress you know she talked about how in one thousand nine hundred american families spent fifteen percent of their household incomes on clothing today that's around four percent so i think it just really shows that there is a high cost to consumer goods when they come so maybe for low low. light bulbs we should have one this is packaged uses very little energy and then another one with a different color so it looks like the differences uses lots and lots of it ever gets older liberals and conservatives what do you think it's almost like you know

the warning labels on their grants almost become like a death fetish for people actually there have been some studies indicating that there were certain subgroups particular teenagers it's actually you know you could do this driving fast without a without a seat and i'm kind of i've always been sort of a bread and roses labor guy and like that well you know there was this this strike up in massachusetts where the women in the factories went on strike and they said we're not only striking for bread we also want to make enough so that we can have roses also and and so much of our you know labor laws are actual progress and worker safety is in the aftermath of these disasters where you know the political forces just couldn't get it done but then face to face with a horrific tragedy a libertarian theology is you know wait until there's a disaster and then and then maybe business will wind up i'm glad the guy in bangladesh was arrested and you know i've expressed you off air that i think we should bring the death penalty for some of these people who you know if this was in

china and he had done something you know we look at these mining accidents and china where they seize the company and they actually put people in jail and think bob what's his name ago and massey mines should be put in the death penalty twenty twenty some odd miners die in plenty of warning that it was going to get if we see culpability there i mean there's blood on his hands i mean what i mean it's unfortunate but this is what has to be done to disagree you know in an article published in the chicago tribune over the weekend this is fast and sandra day o'connor suggested that taking on bush v gore the supreme court taking on bush v gore was a mistake she said it took the case and decided it time when it was still a bit of lection issue maybe the court should have said we're not going to take it by turns out the election authorities in florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up and probably. supreme court added to the problem at the end of the day but the reality is that the court the supreme court in florida had ordered a statewide recount it was ongoing it would have been done in about a week and

a half had the u.s. supreme court not stopped it by taking this case and at the end of a day when you know a year later when the news consortium the new york times usa today were supposed actually counted all the ballots in florida the new york times concluded quote if all the ballots had been reviewed under any of seven the single standards which was all of the standards that were used hanging chads chads pregnant chads people chads with them and combined with the results of an examination of over votes mr gore would have won by a very narrow margin so your thoughts. you know president. how different the world would be i think that you know sandra day o'connor has you know always sort of been uncomfortable with the bush part of her legacy and i'm jeff toobin talked about it in the nine you know she sort of reluctantly signed on into this this decision of kennedy is of equal protection and i think it's been

weighing on her she's a moderate republican i'm she feels that the party has moved drastically and i think you know she's very concerned that it's part of her legacy you know. made his chops and republican party back in the sixty's standing outside polling places in arizona around phoenix in mostly native american communities he's a very tall guy and very very large at that time and very imposing basically threatening people you know confronting them as like right. if those three guys yeah those three guys in the one that really are the one guy yeah yeah same same kind of thing actually and although fox news turned that into all but this is this is this is how did rehnquist brings sandra day o'connor along on this i mean was he because he was it was all but really was was this decision as chief justice lou. first off the response of the new york times their own recount or their assessment of what a recount was memory if memory serves about a dozen independent publications went out and tried to do the same thing in each

case bush won it but a case there well there's a cat to that actually and this was the headline of the new york times and the caviar was if the three counties that gore had originally sued to have recounted which was dade broward and one other if those three counties had only been recounted bush would have won and in fact that was the headline of the new york times article what i just read he was buried in paragraph seventeen and when and when the publisher of the new york times was asked why did you bury the story he said because it was three weeks after nine eleven and we did not want our president to be viewed as illegitimate even though he was i mean we would say i'm a little concerned about people whether it's summer day o'connor any politician who is spending most of their time trying to think about their legacy and that's not the reason why they were given the position in the first place. at the time they felt it was least someone thought it was the right thing to do and i've told them

to well you know something you guys have a group called move on. don a long time ago and betty you can't pick my shoes i thought we did and then where i'm from and al gore made this you know he said george bush is my president too even though he knew what the numbers were. not everybody knew. that number one sandra day o'connor was never considered a heavyweight jurist she was pretty much a symbolic pick that president reagan was warned that in the legislature in her political career in arizona she was not a true conservative to it's it's very interesting that that the day that that report was released was also the same day that dominican plane crashed in like fell out of the sky in queens and so that it's like it consistently. wiped out the lights and you asked why did the new york times bury the lead because if you read the new york times style guide they are supposed to bury the lead many are not many

article i've ever read the new york times you have to dig like six or seven graphs deep before you figure out what the point is to go with that ok ron wyden and lisa murkowski of introduced a bill to require super pacs to reveal their funding. this was in bush v gore in me and citizens united i think the eight to one part of the ruling was we think this will work if all the organizations are transparent what's wrong with transparency now there's nothing wrong with transparency i think but part one of the problems with you know short sighted political. gamesmanship as far as you know we want to know who your donors are you know revealing to us i'm sure no but you know it would be with his that i could you know in massachusetts a few years ago they they wanted to get mitt romney's arms so they pass some legislation remember what it was actually what it was and then as soon as deval patrick came in office they had to turn around and undo it yeah ok you know i think you're wonderful to go to college right now because so let's because you know

transparency here is trans partisan you know the thing is it's not that doesn't always work that way i've sent crews out to do shoots and have my people accosted by people on the left and say who's your donor and so we told them where we can where you can find our donors and we asked where those are go to our website we go to their website you can find the donors ok so so so it could cut both ways and i think it's an admirable effort i think that transparent the could go a long way in important thing in how money can influence politics but i think we see that we've seen that you know a lot of right wing organizations still pour a lot of money into politics it had not that much of an effect what about george soros and the uniqueness of them should we know about them rick i think they are and i think this goes back if you really want to. the influence of money in politics it's going to actually take constitutional amendment i agree move to amend or thirty started i would be very very upset if if they moved to overturn the

principles of. versus alabama state of alabama went after the. donors demanded the list but the court said no this would have a chilling effect on the politics because there they would be subject to intimidation and i agree with that. ok thank you all for being with us. coming up natural gas is getting all the hype in the mainstream media but the real boom is in renewable energy after the break we'll talk to an environmental journalist jay warm key about the emerging clean energy market and what our government can do to make sure that it remains competitive.

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 power. line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. and it is pretty incredible day there and record snowfall throughout what's been like will be a slog through drugs listens to the urgency exceptions.

mission. cretaceous three times four chargers free. range humans three. three stooges three. old free books loaded videos for your media projects a free media. tom. wealthy british style some time to. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening global economy with mike's cancer for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports .

for the back of the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour our county a new mexico has become the first county in the united states to outlaw gas and oil extraction why did that county choose to fight back against big oil and are more communities across the country planning to do the same thing and bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world and so workers are among the most its loitered in the world but despite its poverty in third world conditions bangladesh still has more of a backbone a moral compass than the united states at least when it comes to corp.