i think. i would like to do it if you could you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution which says i think that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck health risks. that are you know i'm sorry and i'm this show we reveal the picture of what's actually

going on we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate real discussion critical issues facing america have my book ready to join the movement then walk and then take. and welcome back to the big picture i'm sam sachs in for tom hartman coming up in this half hour mitch mcconnell in the senate republicans have turned obstructionism into an art form over the past few years but with monday's filibuster of d.c. circuit court nominee robert wilkins things may have hit a breaking point but you democrats have the guts to do anything about it or not just a moment. and at one point in time america's democratic political system and democratic workforce made it the envy of the world that time is long gone tonight still a take explain why unions are the key to restoring real american democracy.

best of the rest of the news washington state washington d.c. is preparing for a nuclear showdown but not in the way you might think on monday republicans in the senate blocked the nomination of robert wilkins pictured right here to serve on the all important d.c. circuit court of appeals this is the third republican filibuster of one of obama's d.c. circuit court nominees in just the past few weeks and democrats are. pretty furious and they might have every right to be the d.c. circuit is the second most important court in the country after the supreme court has jurisdiction over most cases involving federal regulation cases that involve the e.p.a.'s power to control greenhouse gases for example right now the court has an even four four split between republican and democratic appointees so make no mistake about it republican filibusters of president obama's nominees have one aim

in one aim only and that aim is preventing democrats from getting the majority on the second most important court in the country no one should really be that surprised by this latest bout of congressional republican sabotage under mitch mcconnell's leadership of the g.o.p. minority in the senate the use of the filibuster has skyrocketed for many democrats monday's vote was the last straw growing number of democratic lawmakers including those in leadership positions like california's dianne feinstein a come out in support of using the so-called nuclear option this would involve changing senate rules so that executive nominees would only have to be approved by a simple majority vote or more of the story i'm joined now by stephen spaulding legislative counsel for common cause stephen welcome back to the show thanks sam so in regards to the latest filibuster of judge robert wilkins there is this talk about doing something about the filibuster at the beginning of the year and then senators reid and mcconnell have this sort of gentlemanly deal isn't this the sort

of thing about gentlemanly deal was supposed to prevent the sort of filibuster absolutely yes senator feinstein said today that you know they all came together they saying. behind closed doors in the old senate chamber even in july and it ended with this agreement they hugged it out that lasted about a week and the republicans are right back to to their old kind of tricks quite frankly where we were before where they have been standing in the senate door blocking up or down yes or no votes on a whole host of things mr wilkins it's just it's the fourth d.c. circuit nominee that president. it has nominated that the republicans have have blocked with their so buster what's even more interesting is you know all of these nominees actually have had bipartisan majority support we had senator mcconnell koski and senator collins join with the democrats to give them by by my account you know a super majority they had fifty four votes fifty five votes and yet they still aren't getting an up or down vote so this is

a clear effort to deny the president his constitutional authority to name nominees and deny the senate the rest of the senate the right to either you know to provide advice and consent say yes or no and with each of these filibusters especially on these nominees you have more and more democrats who might have been hesitant book hesitant before about reforming the filibuster now coming forward and it looks like this sort of a limited nuclear option where you'll get rid of the filibuster requirement or the sixty vote requirement on executive nominees might be an option that we could see an active here is that enough i mean what should we see when it comes to filibuster reform which we see coming from from common causes perspective you know we're actually in federal court right now because we think the sixty vote rule is actually unconstitutional we think it's clear that the founding there's a filibuster in the car there's no fat there's no filibuster in the constitution that the founders actually considered a supermajority requirement they considered requiring more than fifty percent sixty two thirds they rejected that except for treaties except for you know impeaching

a president we have in the constitution laid out explicitly where a supermajority is required passing legislation and confirming nominees is not one of the but you brought up a really good point the proposal of the moment is just about executive nominees and judicial nominees this is a very small step this is just about restoring the senate's function in the constitution which is to provide advice and consent the way that mr mcconnell leader mcconnell has has been running the senate it's actually on him that the rules and traditions have changed and that's an interesting point because mcconnell is headed for re-election next year and a new poll out shows that he's in a dead heat with the democrat down there. could that have anything to do with the way he's run the we're the republican minority in the senate over the last few years and might we see a difference now that he's in this close race with how many filibusters he's willing to sign off moving forward i mean i think the citizens of kentucky expected their senator and provide up or down votes to allow laws to at least see the light

of day he has really led the charge in blocking debate on every bill under the sun every nomination from even moving forward and it's been a concerted frankly it's been an open conspiracy to nullify a law that he didn't have the votes to defeat in the first place whether it was dodd frank that set up the consumer financial protection bureau they couldn't defeat that so they decided to deprive it of an agency head they don't like the n.l.r.b. so they deprive it of those of those they don't like the e.p.a. they filibustered the head of the e.p.a. now we're seeing the d.c. circuit these three vacancies that have been open for years now they have no problem with the qualifications of the nominees senator mcconnell just doesn't want those agencies to function and he just doesn't want president obama to have his judges there's nothing to do that's what's new their objections that senator mcconnell has really been a pioneer on is standing in the way of laws and nominees not because he thinks

they're one qualified but because he doesn't even like the laws of the agencies in the first place whenever we see these filibusters we get a little blip on the news about them but if you look in that we showed a charter earlier about just the historical precedent with filibusters that in itself should be a gigantic news story but it's a we do stories about how broken washington is it's kind of right around here as the media given cover to the filibuster of the last one i think is allowed to continue like i agree i mean i think it's just been assumed you constantly hear whether the dream act for example which passed the house back in two thousand and ten and got fifty five votes in the senate it was reported as the dream act failed in the united states senate actually it got fifty five votes the disclose act which was a bill so we could see where the hundreds of millions of dollars of secret money that is pouring in. are campaigns and i mean i was working on the hill for the best i was like you know it's incredible because there's also climate change letters all of it the same and what's fascinating is if you don't like it if you go back to the federalist papers hamilton more about this he said we have a supermajority requirement it will be used to embarrass the administration and destroy the energy of government well that could be on the front page of the new

york times is that it right there i mean spaulding thank you thanks and in other news while republicans are busy obstructing the american political process at every chance possible they're also continuing their all out war against the social safety net and one of the main arguments republicans have against social safety net programs is that they're filled with fraud and abuse but as tom explained recently that couldn't be farther from the truth. many on the left are natural. when the obama said to the phones on mr miller get results. for tonight's politically corrected i'm correcting karl rove i was nice o'reilly factor bill o'reilly had rove on to explain the big disability cause he believes explains the increase in social security disability recipients rove attributed the increase in social security disability recipients to a lack of fraud protection in programs like social security and medicare take

a look. private insurance companies have a financial necessity of making sure they stop fraud there are no fraud protections in medicare medicaid social security none in fact rove is just plain wrong medicare medicaid and social security all have fraud prevention programs in place to protect prevent and recover money from any cases of fraud department of health and human services recently released a fact sheet about the medicare fraud program that details the variety of laws in place that punish medicare fraud which criminalizes the government being overcharged or knowingly defrauded by medicare recipients doctors or third parties for example between two thousand and two thousand and two florida governor rick scott's columbia h.c.a. private health care company pled guilty to fourteen felonies and paid a six hundred million dollars fine in the largest medicare fraud settlement in u.s. history and the office of the inspector general also has

a program to reduce and respond to social security disability from the cooperative disability investigation program investigates disability claims that are as essays title two and title sixteen programs that state disability examiners believe are suspicious despite what karl rove may tell you there are a variety of fraud control programs in place when it comes to. medicare medicaid and social security and they work and that's why mr roe has been politically correct. crazy alert with a rebel yell shot a quad county new york police charged local resident brian j. moulton with three counts of misdemeanor menacing last week for harassing his neighbor with a civil war era cannon yes

a civil war era can it police were sent to malta house last wednesday after he spent eight straight days firing his cannon pictured here in the direction of his neighbor's home to use playing thankfully not actual cannon balls but the artillery barrage could still be heard miles away when asked by a local newspaper about the origins of the dispute police said it was a. civil matter no word yet on whether brian moulton is a blue or a gray but i think it's safe to say that with a moustache like that he'd be right at home in a civil war battlefield. that right we'll. just in time for coming up america is the world's first constitutional democracy so

why have we handed power over our economy off to a handful of modern day war alist like the wall nair's war and that now it's.

i would rather ask questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question more. well see british science. is the time to. go right out of.

the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cancer for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds of reports . for tonight so the good the bad and the very very cold taisha slee ugly the good senator elizabeth warren as rumors swirl about a possible two thousand and sixteen presidential run or i should say as progress is progressive hope for a two thousand and sixteen run the massachusetts senator continues to fight for the middle class and protect the new deal during a monday speech on the senate floor or in blasted budget hawks and argued that washington should be talking about expanding not cutting social security take

a look. over the past generation of working families have been attacked at ship and hammered if we want a real middle class a middle class that continues to service the backbone of our country then we must take the retirement crisis seriously seniors who have worked their entire lives and have paid into this system but right now more people than ever are on the edge of a natural disaster once they were timer and the numbers continue to get worse that is why we should be talking about expanding social security benefits not cutting them that sounds like a plan senator why don't you run on it now the bad jerry boykin during a recent speech at william jessup university the family research council the. secular president said he was angry about how popular culture portrays jesus christ

. jesus spoke in the says who was excuse me jesus boykin says was not in a feminine wimp but a tough man's man whatever that means take a look. what you think it is do you think you look like this a famine a picture that we always see of him that. he didn't look like i think about what he looked like he had bold muscle and seeing you in those own arms you think his biceps weren't big bulging boss. big brains popping out of his own stand waist strong shoulders for lifting. he spelled bad why have a cosy sweaty work. you think of sacrilege just because i said jesus smelled bad no he was a man. it was a man's. route all that talk about muscle and manliness really riles stereo up he really really likes jesus but you know come to think of it he might have a point. rumor has it that this picture recently unearthed by archaeologists in

jerusalem is the earliest known image of jesus ever there you go gerry and the very very ugly young conservatives of texas lone star state youth group is under fire today for scheduling a so-called catch in illegal immigrant game tomorrow at the university of texas according to a post on the group's facebook page a post which by the way is since been deleted quote there will be several people walking around the u.t. campus with the label illegal immigrant on their clothing and you teach students who catches one of these illegal immigrants and brings them back to our table will receive a twenty five dollars gift card. and the game is the organizers the game is just supposed to help educate people about how legal immigration affects their lives but let's be honest the only thing hosting a catch an illegal immigrant they teach is. anyone is that racial profiling and vigilante justice are acceptable and that is just very very ugly.

so another day another public relations disaster for wal-mart on monday the national labor relations board the federal agency that protects workers' rights announced that it is charging the nation's largest employer with violating american labor laws now those charges stem from last november's black friday walkouts in which hundreds of wal-mart employees from across the country struck to demand higher pay and better working conditions according to the n.l.r.b. wal-mart broke the law when it intimidated and fired workers who joined in on that strike the agency said in a press release wal-mart unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal if they

engaged in strikes and protests on november twenty second two thousand and twelve and also lawfully threatened disciplined and or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests monday's announcement couldn't have come at a better time labor groups are planning another round of strikes this thanksgiving and the n.l.r.b. his decision to press charges should give an added boost to their cause but wal-mart isn't just hearing it from the feds and was shocking story out of the midwest is making it too is making it to explain its business practices to the public as well as we talked about earlier on in the show a canton ohio wal-mart has come under fire this week for holding a holiday canned food drive for its own employees should such is life in modern america where we are. now have the highest level of inequality of anywhere in the world of course this wasn't always the case at one time america was the envy of the

rest of the world it was made possible by unionization by turning the workplace into a democracy but ever since the reagan revolution of the one nine hundred eighty s. democracy in the american workplace has been under attack from the forces of economic royalists helped out by republicans in washington america's corporate elites have declared an all out war on unions and turn the workplace back into their own feudal empire if you want to rebuild the middle class there's only one thing we need to do re store the labor movement to its proper place at the negotiating table and that is the subject of tonight's deleted. small dida mockers c. in our small our republic has been collapsing for the last thirty years were rapidly reversing three hundred years of progress kingdoms and feudalism and serfdom were around for millennia until the evolutionary leap to democracy with the

enlightenment the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. in the old feudal societies the king or the local lords owned everything including the land the buildings the animals even the people king and those close to him own you and your spouse and your children some kings even exercise the right of the first night or the king took the room generally of every new bride hierarchy patriarchy and massage it were all intertwined with feudalism and were rationalized as being biblical and the way it's always been done. the eighteenth in one thousand centuries saw an explosion of anti-feudal democracy the american revolution through a whole variety of uprisings across europe and across the rest of the world in small d. democratic nations people had a say in how things were done and who and what. but feudalism didn't die

it merely moved it it moved out of the arena of governance and into the arena of commerce the invention and sixteen zero one by queen elizabeth the first of limited liability corporation a new type of fee feudal kingdom was established an economic one and it persists to this day complete with its traditional elements of hierarchy patriarchy and massaging the c.e.o. as the king often lives and travels like one senior executives of the lords in a mass great wealth and control the wives and fates of those under them the workers or service and if they dared if either king or is lords they can be punished in ways up to and including imprisonment and like an ancient feudal times women find themselves at the bottom of the hierarchy often with little power unless a than men indeed as recently as this year numerous republican men in congress

voted against laws that would prevent employers from engaging in economic physical or even sexual violence against their female employees. while democracy confronted kingdoms back in seventy and seventy six democracy confronted the feudal corporate state in one nine hundred thirty two. workplaces had become kingdoms and workers were treated like service of a feudal state until f.d.r.'s democratic evolutionary leap in the one nine hundred thirty s. with the wagon interact the national labor relations act that act f.d.r. and congress inserted democracy into the workplace they did it by creating the right to unionize. that right created a genuine democracy in the workplace a major evolutionary leap forward both for business and for workers and most importantly. for our democratic republic. to work marvelously wages

of workers increased a middle class emerged c.e.o.'s had wealth and power but it was not unlimited i mean they lived well but not like kings the average c.e.o. only made thirty times as much as the average worker but then came the reagan revolution against democracy in the workplace in the feudal lords rose up again anti-democratic and pro feudalism forces have been pushing back against democracy in the workplace since reagan declared war against organized labor in one thousand nine hundred one and it has not only hurt our workplace it's also hurt democracy in our nation a democracy that once existed both in government and in the workplace the reagan revolution pitted worker against worker tore communities apart and rich the kings and lord at the top of these corporate feudal dynasties workers meanwhile have been reduced to serfdom and now confront a new form of wage slavery if we care about strengthening and restoring democracy

in the united states of america we must begin with our work places work or involvement the workplace is the core of democracy in the workplace this was so obvious to the germans that they enshrined in their law and constitution that half of every large corporations board of directors must be made up of union representatives as long as democracy is kept out of our work places like the aggressive union busting efforts of wal-mart amazon mcdonalds our larger sense of community which derives from local democracy is damaged and diminished and that in turn harms our political democracy as it makes people disempowered and cynical. revitalizing democracy in our workplaces will help revitalize democracy our neighbor and in our nation from local levels like school boards all the way up to condoms all we need to do is look back at the experience of the fifty's sixty's and seventy's those were periods of high levels of democracy in the workplace and they coincided with high levels of democratic activism and participation across the

political spectrum. like germany we should mandate that every board of directors have strong union representation to do that we must also restore the right to democracy in the workplace the right to unionize abolishing the taft hartly act is the most important first step toward that goal and women's make it easier for workers to unionize to use simple systems like card check abraham lincoln the first us president to recognize the right of workers to unionize and strike quote of the preamble to our constitution when talking about making america a more perfect union from the founding of our republic in the in until the one nine hundred eighty s. we have always been steadily working on perfecting democracy in america if we are truly to call ourselves a democratic nation a democratic republic we must extend democracy into our workplace is.

old. technology innovation all the developments around russia. that's huge you're covered. that was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little relieved. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news even the alexander family cry tears

of joy at it great things rather than. get a quart of water on the ground alive is a story made for a movie is playing out in real life. one of the wonderful moment a lot of these new knowledge base i think sometimes you know. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher.

mary kay now do you get a musical sensation show you don't want to be a superstar i'm not asking to be a superstar i think it's. really nice. so you have this young twenty year old arguing with b.s. masters right i was sixteen at the time so i was crazy bad are you a brat. i wouldn't sound a bronze i'm very passionate plus i don't think i'd have a tool. like this cold all next on larry king now. we welcome to larry king our share lloyd she is a british musical sensation her debut album sticks and stones shot to number four on the u.k. charts and on.