me with max conjure for a no holds barred look at the local financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy which. will. never go on i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on and we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america ready to join the movement then welcome the big. bill i'm joe marvin in washington d.c. joined by my good friend and america's lawyer might have been tony oh and here's

what's coming up tonight on the big picture senator harry reid's filibuster reform was supposed to restore order to the senate so why are republicans still blocking president obama's judicial nominees also a growing number of lawmakers on capitol hill are speaking out about the dangers of the trans-pacific partnership so why is the obama administration acting like the t p p is a done deal and just a few months ago the supreme court said in its voting rights act decision that racial discrimination is really not a significant problem in america today as recent events have shown racial discrimination is very much alive in america and it's time to eliminate it once and for more on that and try and steal it. you need to know this federal judges have always played an important of sometimes problematic role in american democracy that's why presidents have fought to put

their people on the courts since the founding of our democratic republic sometimes as in the case of judge john pickering in the fight to control the court. has been colorful of outright comical picker in a new hampshire district court judge during the jefferson administration as the distinct honor of being the first federal judge ever removed from office a federalist in a time republicanism he quickly ran afoul of president thomas jefferson and his democratic republican allies in congress after pickering made a series of erratic rulings that flouted the authority of the federal government the house of representatives decided to take action and so and you know three speaker of the house and then i'll make and slapped him with four articles of impeachment those articles accuse pickering of quote intending to defeat the just claims of the united states and disregarding the authority of the laws and wickedly meaning and intending to injure the revenues of the united states can quote also charge him with being a man of loose morals and intemperate habits who did appear on the bench of the said court for the administration of justice in the state of total intoxication

reduced by the free and intemperate use of intoxicating liquors and did then and there frequently in a most profane and indecent manner invoked the name of the supreme being to the evil example of all the good citizens of the united states in other words pickering was sort of like the jefferson errors version of charlie sheen not surprisingly the house of representatives found this behavior unacceptable and voted to impeach pickering in march of one thousand eight hundred three senate followed suit march of eighteen zero four obviously the pickering impeachment is an extreme example pickering was a drunken probably insane from simplest but at the same time it shows that if left to their own devices and left unchecked by congress federal judges have the power to do some wild and crazy things and that's what makes the ongoing battle between president obama and senate republicans over to appointments so important even though harry reid bit the bullet and pushed through filibuster reform last year the

senate has confirmed only one let me repeat one judge in the first few months of two thousand and fourteen thanks to republican. thirty two nominees are still waiting for approval for a total of ninety six vacancies on the federal court stakes couldn't be higher activist conservative judges have wreaked havoc on our republic and our commons over the past half century they gutted campaign finance laws empowered corporations and cut the legs out from under the voting rights act if president obama doesn't get his nominees confirmed it will be that much easier for conservative judges to continue their assault on our democracy joining me now for more on this is america's lawyer mike happen tony up attorney and host a ring of fire radio and t.v. pap welcome back it's great to have you thanks for joining me for the first three quarters of tonight's show it's going to be a hoot so president obama has put forward thirty two nominees a total of ninety six vacancies on the federal court a federal bench thirty nine of them have been officially designated judicial

emergencies john roberts was complaining about this of all people what's going on but what's going on in the back story to this tom is they're afraid to make democratic appointments during a democratic presidency and if you look at the timing on it it really does have to do is not just my opinion it's you've seen this surface several times it has to do with voting rights acts in other words if you have ninety six vacancies is what you have right now you you don't empower those democratic appointments to take action in places where there needs to be action and you'd rather have a court that is run exactly like it's doing today where you use pretty unsure of what the courts are going to let me back this up with voting rights x. so you're talking about like in north carolina where they're saying basically if you go to college you can't vote that's right yet the walk in the you know walk in the snow for for miles or whatever you know if you're african-american if you're in a minority area down in no what was it florida or pennsylvania they just closed

a whole bunch of of the voting places. so that that stuff will end. before federal judge you know and you want to make sure the republicans want to make sure the federal judge is a republican appointee so he's going to keep those laws in place is that exactly so you live with ninety six vacancies even though what's so interesting about this is you have thirty two thirty two people have already a federal judge has already been approved now what that means if you've had bipartisan approval you've had republicans say yeah this guy this woman this person may be a democrat but they pass my test therefore i want to go forward with them so you've got a committee it's got out of committee and to tell you how outrageous that is you have marco rubio this is a great example of how obstructionist this has become and how desperately they're fighting because of this voting issue but marco rubio came forward with his proposal he says this is the judge that we would like to have appointed now after

he did that all of a sudden he won't take any further action there's something that's called a blue slip and what it what a blue slip is is a senator has the right to to not submit a blue slip approval for a new judge and by not doing that no action is taken on the judge so it's basically if i don't sign off on this judge he doesn't go forward and the sign off is the blue slip and so i'm not going to so so rule saying you know this guy's fine. expect me to do it right and so it's dead in the water in what's happened there's there's all types of i call him good old boy club tricks these aren't congressional rights the this is these things that we're seeing the republicans do don't come from legislation anything having to do with the constitution they simply come up with a set of rules that say listen you can't go forward and in allow a judge to be to move through the process if there's not a quorum vote if you don't have a if you have

a committee and you don't have enough people there to vote then nothing happens well the republicans as a matter of fact the last time this came up. there were ten seats that could have ten federal judges could have been okayed they said well we're just not going to show up so even though yes filibuster was a huge success for harry reid we're all proud of him but it has to be more there has to be you have to remove these good old boys ridiculous kinds of obstacles if the republicans are refusing to provide a quorum me mean you got enough people to take a vote right if they're just saying i'm going to stay home in bed and write. what can harry reid do well there are things that can be done if you're a quorum vote is a typical situation in a lot of settings but in a lot of settings there is a punitive aspect if there's bad faith for example people choose not to show up out of bad faith there can be some there can be some ways to tweak of his area readers

actually declare it's an emergency the very day he certainly could there's many things that here we can do and i think he'll get there already you have lady who is chairman of the of the committee saying look i don't really like this blue slip thing that i've allowed to take place it's capricious it's arbitrary nothing happens because of it and you know what it plays right into the hands of the republicans that want to shut down the federal appointments in the system right now what are your thoughts on the people obama has nominated well that's another problem that's a different part of the story even if you look at the democrats that he's nominated they're very marginal where it comes to consumer interests most of them come from what i call silk stocking law firms i mean the people that the two thousand dollar allow an hour lawyer who represents a corporation their entire life tom they've come up being paid by corporations to take the rights away from consumers and so it's a ridiculous argument to say that overnight this person is going to be a federal judge in the overnight he's he's mystically magically going to becomes

somebody who really cares about consumers unfortunately the appointments. that obama has made have been kind of like that all corporate all six silk stocking really not connected much to the consumer world very connected to wall street very connected to big business is there any chance of that's going to change now as a consequence of of harry reid you know pulling a half a nuclear option if harry reid becomes extremely aggressive on this and i hope he will it could be a message to obama it could be look if you were making these if you were going forward with these democratic appointments because you believe that you had to split the baby stop because right now seventy two percent of the judiciary is heavily packed with what are called neo conservative judges i mean there's no other way to describe them they're ideologues they are politicians in black robes many times that don't have great experience really the judiciary we've seen

a really dramatic increase in the power sure was what's that all that well you have you have the scalia mentality and right now is the new idea of the supreme court judge it absolutely effects judges below them when you have scalia out front trying to tell us he's a rock star this new judicial rock star who has an opinion about everything that act really flies in the face of what we used to how we used to regard the supreme court scalia has done huge harm massive harm to the image of the supreme court right now public opinion is showing that he's a loud mouth he talks about issues he should not be talking about his judicial temperament is almost nonexistent and it's causing harm to the court and he goes you know i don't know did he go dick duck hunting with dick cheney he survived must have been they were drinking or something but if you want someplace that dick cheney does it just before he. ruled in favor of dick cheney right after that well

yes that's right he needs not to want to get shot a face that no dick cheney shot somebody else in the district. who knows a lot of dogs or is. it is it is pretty strange bipap attorney is sticking around coming up conservatives like bob corker say the unions scare away the business of but they're wrong many businesses actually like you and the reason after the break .

i've got a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay with substory. let's get this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most issues in the mainstream media were for each other bribery must be sure to fight. the good rather. it was a. very hard to take. once again to come on here as a play by patton that had sex with that her thick hair cut if that's.

the case. if it was. safe. if. if . the.

in screwed news last week tennessee senator bob corker claimed that if workers at a chattanooga volkswagen plant voted against joining the united auto workers walk so i can would reward them by building this new line of s.u.v.s and tennessee he said i've had conversations today and based on those m. assured that should the workers vote against the u.a.w. volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size s.u.v. here in chattanooga at a volkswagen chattanooga plant ended up refuting corkers comments that the u.a.w. thinks that the senators threat ended up playing a big role in swaying the chattanooga election against the union senators threat may also play a big role in determining volkswagens future plans for the american south that's because as a german company volkswagen is required to include workers in all business related

decisions it does this by doing it by using something called a works council a special union like organization that works with management on a number of issues including safety in strategy if the workers of all boats wagons chattanooga plant had voted to join the u.a.w. they would have been able to create a works council of their own but friday's election results throughout possibility out the window and now they had a volkswagen's works councils someone who has a direct role in that company's business plans international is. saying that if volkswagen doesn't see any improvement in labor relations in town to see the company may have to rethink building any more plants in the south he told a german newspaper on wednesday that if having a works council isn't guaranteed in the first place we as workers will hardly be able to vote in favor of potentially building another plant in the americans so in other words southern republicans should shut up and let workers unionize roles volkswagen will start building cars somewhere else joining us now for more on this

is stuart national director national organizing director the national union of hospitals health care employees and a legend in the union movement and stuart it's always great to have it's great to see you and it's great to see mike it's great to be with you and it's great to be talking about this issue in my home state of tennessee what do you think when bob corker read in in today's paper maybe last night's you know financial times that the german i mean real volkswagen is saying you know maybe we're not going to build another plant in the south that you know you think it's had exploded i think it probably did i think. his statement came back to bite him in the back and and by tennessee and all the american south in the backside unfortunately first thing is this is a united states senator along with a congressman zach wamp who intentionally and deliberately kept their constituents

from increasing their quality of life their security and their standard of living and the future of their kids that's number one number two the there is a reason that germany with as much wealth and highly paid workers as they do has an export surplus it's because they have works councils it's because business and labor and government works together to make sure the make the best possible product and they are able to export it we should do the same and and all the german worse can. the saying is look we're not millette you go to the american south and exploit those workers and undermine your home in germany it's it makes a lot of sense if you're a german metal worker and. the german metal workers union is to be congratulated for pushing as hard as they have on on bokes wagon and bob corker did well he proved that he was lying essentially.

the the boat that works council proved that he was lying when he said he'd had conversations and if they vote for the union and votes right it's not going to bring in the issues what do you think the germans know about the importance of labor the corporate doesn't what is what are the yeah well what is it that distinguishes what they know from what we seem unable to understand i mean part of a country. i want to choose my words carefully here and i don't want to overstate anything but they know what the logical and of right wing extremism is and i think they also know. unlike. how to have a manufacturing economy where you create wealth by making things and export that. you know we have this idiology in this country that worker you have to push workers

as far down as possible in fact can't treat them like human beings either in this country or any other country you have to push and push and push you move to the american south then you move to mexico then you move to china now you move into vietnam and indonesia and malaysia you have to push people as far down as you can that's not the way they do it in germany it's not the way they do it in western europe it's not that way they do it in canada with thirty percent union density and pair the prosperity i mean compare the prosperity you know we have what what is it now by. hundred the average c.e.o. makes five hundred times as much money as he is his or her average worker well in most western democracies is between twenty and forty times as and for most people that's planning that's a help that's a heck of a hell of a lot of money tom that's exactly right so but the other thing is that that and i'm from tennessee so i can say that's where we are saddled with

a plantation the remnants of a plantation economy and the remnants of slavery to be honest with you and too much of economic thinking in my native region in my native state comes from that line. of oppression of workers although now it's it doesn't just have a racial cut no it's just it's never did just have a racial you had to yeah you're right it's the large chunk of class or whatever right call it in there. what bob corker did my understanding of labor law is that what he did was a crime factory however he's a united states senator he's governed by created you know the and the institution korea by article one of the constitution national labor relations board as part of the executive branch article two of the constitution and so a conflict between the two would have to be adjudicated by article three the the to

do supreme court writes actually at that level of it right supreme court which is pretty much the definition of a constitutional crisis where the supreme court has to suffer subtle arbitrate something between these the other two branches of government so it's extremely unlikely i'm guessing that the n.l.r.b. or president obama or anybody in the executive branch is going to go after senator corker if that's true first of all i'd like your thoughts on that but if that's true then are there any options well there are plenty of options. it depends on what the. united automobile workers and let me just say that the u.s. done a great job working with german companies on this they've already organize freightliner years ago this way in north carolina thomas built bus i worked on that when i was that they had. ten years ago. but it depends on what the folks wagon decides to do for instance volkswagen could

say the election was tainted we're going to recognize the union and begin barking they just do it they just do it it's it's it's it's one point in our history it was common practice before that partly act is very common and the right to work committee would fund somebody and file a suit meanwhile the unions in there the companies singing the praises of having a relationship workers are no longer afraid of the company moving because the companies embracing the union and the workers and eventually a court would order in l.r.b. our court would order that they have to have another election because the u.a.w. did not prove that they represented all the workers so they'd have another election

i think they'd win that election so. recognize seeing you let the right to work committee. file a charge and file suit let it be adjudicated meanwhile you're inside and people are learning what it's like to be a member of a fine union like you a deputy you know stewart well organized labor might be taking a hit in tennessee right now it could take an even bigger hit across america if t p p is signed onto by the united states and that signing could be coming very soon there's a high level meeting on t.p. in singapore this weekend and public citizen is reporting that u.s. officials are pushing for some sort of a melt summit at that meeting according to lori wallach director of public citizen's global trade watch she says that she says there's a sense that whether or not any real deal is finalized there may be an announcement of one anyway to patrol that the talks are going despite despite growing opposition

to the t p p in some of the countries involved an announcement also could be a ploy to try to pressure congress on a trade authority to maximize president obama's leverage when he visits japan i'm wondering stuart how much damage to t.t.p. do to the american labor movement a whole heck of a lot you're basically undermining the labor standards across asia. and you are encouraging american corporations to move more jobs to low wage asian asia nobody is against allowing underdeveloped countries to develop into manufacturing countries and develop their wealth and that's happening china is a great example of that but you shouldn't allow american and multinational corporations to choose to just go where the people who are most exploited to have slave labor

have child labor you really really you really want that ten dollars sure. from the big box store that was made by a nine year old kid in vietnam is it really that important to you and that's what americans need to ask themselves when i go what's the impact going to be. well it will further depress wages in america we're in a global economic rights to the bottom we're all tied together in this in this global economy. multinationals are right about that and that economic race to the bottom holds everybody down with it unless a country as we were saying earlier like germany does things internally the whole wages up we're not doing that the united states is not doing that and so the the competition to go to the lowest wage the most exploitive bowl labor will pull american workers and it will further diminish our our our

manufacturing sector in this country which is in bad shape as it is. and there is no reason for there there you don't have to have trade deals you go back to the beginning of the european union they created the european union in a way to pull up spain in portugal not to pull them sweden and and and germany and france for instance and there's no reason that you can protect intellectual property rights but you can't protect a nine year old kid from work and in effect well actually there is a reason and that's the transnational corporations right as you know give a rat's ass about that nine year old kid but they do care about their profits there you go thank you so much. great to see you fake coming up the phone lines are now open for your take my take a lot of segments so if you want the chance to ask me or my pepitone e-mail

question live here on the big picture give us a call or two and not all four twenty one thirty four maybe we'll be talking to you after the break. chance our forces that. there are. six nations and the finish line of the marathon. and. what hasn't. come.

into. it. 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. well

give me your take my take a live the phone lines are now open so if you want to share an opinion make a comment ask a question live on the air me or my pap and honey or both give us a call or two and two not zero four twenty one thirty four add a one before the number for our international viewers let's go to our first video comment of. some marcus from colorado here i was just wondering what is going to happen when our government use falls down in crashes because of how crappy everything is being ramp thank you for your time big fan of your show by the way. thanks for your kind comments mark. i'll be happy.