the suspect. they would like to do is go to juneau the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck help us. to make you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on we go beyond identifying a problem to try to rational debate a real discussion critical issues facing america are ready to join the movement then welcome the big. oil back to the big picture on to our been coming up in this half hour the natural gas boom is taking our country by storm over the past few years but now much of the anger of the oil and gas industry one small city in colorado is fighting back

against fracking so what are the chances that the small city wins its fight and what can other towns learn from its experience about how to stand up to fossil fuel companies and by now pretty much everyone in the media has their own opinion about why house majority leader eric cantor lost to dave brat last night but the thing is most of those opinions are totally wrong i'll tell you one of the big and largely unreported reasons or cantor lost internets daily take. back in november the city of lafayette colorado scored a major win for the environmental movement when a ban hydraulic fracturing better known as fracking anywhere within city limits and that's not all at the same time as they ban fracking lafayette also created something called a community bill of rights which declared that as a community they had the right. right to clean water and

a healthy environment not surprisingly this really upset colorado's fossil fuel industry which filed a lawsuit news in december demanding that lafayette scrap its community bill of rights and recognize the corporations have a right to frack you think with all of the rocky mountain states biggest energy companies lined up against them that the residents of lafayette would want to back off but they haven't backed off one bit instead they're fighting back yesterday with the help of the community environmental legal defense fund silva the people of lafayette filed a class action lawsuit against the state of colorado its governor john hickenlooper of colorado oil and gas association joining me now to talk about that lawsuit as well as the future of the fight against fracking or thomas lindsey's negative director co-founder and chief legal counsel at the community environmental legal defense funds. and cliff well men who is one of the plaintiffs in this new lawsuit thomas cliff walk of thank you to be on the show thanks for joining us cliff let's

start with you because i want to get into the back story what's going on here what made lafayette first want to ban fracking back in november. well lafayette is one of many colorado communities that is essentially being run up into by the oil and gas industry that's coming off of where i live it's the wattenberg shale and you know communities have tried to approach this issue in a way to preserve their health welfare and safety from a variety of different angles really you know what we found in lafayette is that when we tried to address this issue to either our local government or the politicians that we have around us we were told that we essentially had no right whatsoever to say no to this industry and you know we might make some bargains with some regulations or that sort of thing but really the way we feel about it in lafayette which is a nice small town in colorado about twenty three thousand people we didn't want to

negotiate what parts per million of benzine that we were going to breathe or or you know how far away from the elementary school the drill is going to go and so we took it upon ourselves with the help of the community environmental legal defense fund to create our own community bill of rights so that we would articulate in define and protect what we considered important for lafayette citizens and within that bill of rights we had probed prohibitions against all oil and gas development the disposal of unstuck industrial waste there and new new projects like compressor stations pipelines and this sort of thing in doing so we went after those same laws that corporations used to keep communities like lafayette subserving thomas home lafayette by van fracking and did so by creating. this community bill of rights we just heard describe what is it what is a do what is a community bill of rights well you join the good folks of low join and close to

two hundred other communities across you know and actually beginning to expand the loop on. carmella writes of the local level you know we're used to talking about states bills of rights and federal the federal bill of rights in the station but what's happening now is communities are rising up across the united states to drive in their own bill of rights legally enforceable bill of rights the clean air and clean water and a right to enter the future and in doing so they're banning those activities like fracking that actually violate those right and then as madison routinely corporations across the united states have used their own corporate constitutional rights to override those types of laws in which communities have attempted to say no to dangerous activities like fracking and so lafayette as well as close to one hundred other communities across you know they have actually begun to read the fine work right from powers within their own communities bearing corporations in some

ways to challenge them to try to take the right back but in all respects is about putting the rights of people above the rights of corporations. so. to hyper simplify that thomas is in that sense what you just said that corporations have been asserting that they have a constitutional right to do whatever they want and if the community doesn't like what they do and screw the community we've got a constitutional right and that the citizens of lafayette are saying way about it where people constitution was written for us stop for you we have constitutional rights and in fact because we're people and you're just a corporation our rights trump your rights yes that's exactly what they're saying and so in some ways it's not environmental issues but democracy one yeah it's about the right of people within communities like to a community of local self-government and that becomes a very powerful tool to the search because the sensibly the fabric of the united states which is the ability to govern or. you go cliff when when faced with

a lawsuit from a big corporation one that could presumably even break the budget of a town a lot of people a lot of talents would probably back down and in fact historically. a lot have gone all the way back to the one nine hundred centuries why haven't you guys back down. well we figured that essentially the time had come and gone for people to finally stand up to this and we're facing a situation in lafayette where we feel like we pay for this no matter what if we don't stand up then we could potentially see our very nice community turned into an oil and gas field and so for those of us in lafayette we feel like we've really been backed against the wall and really within the considerations of how do with dress this you know and we started off with a small grassroots group of about four people we determined that upon learning that these corporations had essentially written the law system itself so as to respect

their interests that we not only wanted to address what the people in lafayette were facing but the people in colorado in general were facing as well as you know what communities are having to deal with across the country and so we wanted to create essentially what what comes to be. a grassroots movement so that we can not only address the immediate threat of i draw the fracturing but also start to create those fundamental legal change that orse not just fracking on to communities but industrial cyanide g.m. owes injection wells and all these kind of corporate profits basically what you're trying to do if i if i have if i understand this right cliff is you are involved in colorado in a move in a citizens movement to try to amend the colorado constitution to say that communities can establish their own bill of rights the communities can have their own rights and. i have that right. you're awfully

close to it i mean it's essentially what we're dealing with you're in colorado. lafayette is being sued right along. side of several other colorado communities long months or calendar are also being sued broomfield and all of these communities have tried to protect their health safety and welfare through various actions or municipal laws to keep oil and gas activity outside of that community and really the state of colorado is saying that it's not the business of our you know our local communities to determine what corporate project arrives and you know in doing so what we're trying to under you is a legal framework that essentially gives these corporations legal privilege what we're being sued for and in lafayette by the colorado and gas association to the idea that the state makes decisions over oil and gas activity and not the people and so the colorado oil and gas association is doing lafayette the same way. that

the oil and gas industry really way back in the ninety's when they tried to deal with this and and so really they don't really last and they only resolution we have is is to address constitutional legal challenge changes so that the people are placed in a superior position to corporate projects because that's what we believe the people in constitutions really should stand for thomas we have about a minute a half left i'm curious how the democratic party in colorado governor john hickenlooper at the democratic party in general and our innovation cell that environmentally all of us money are involved in similar lawsuits all around the country on how political parties and politicians are responding to you across the country. generally we have many differences from the democrats wherever this is the truth but then this is. the supreme court recently

approved for. the community right now at work to put forward five of the member is become very divisive. that's. what seventy five would do in the process did it already well but it would actually give communities the legal authority to redefine worker rights and powers when they conflict with people in the community and the right to be alone and so it is thrown a monkey wrench into the plans of both the democrats and republicans to accelerate well you know it's really and has become whether seventy five of this new class action lawsuit really a buffer of protection for people with their own rights or if it's remarkable thomas you're doing god's work you're doing incredible stuff and cliff you and your community have so much courage i'm so impressed by what you do and i wish you all both a very very thanks thanks for joining us a favor just coming up if you're looking for an answer as to why house majority

leader eric cantor lost his primary election to a little known college professor named rap look no further than the coke to put explain in tonight's daily to.

well. it's technology innovation all the use developments from around russia. the future covered. this was in the washington well it's a missile that is being suggested in the latest numbers of the. candidates for the prophecy of war and issues actually back to a new doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tech agriculture giant teeth on a seventy six year old american farmer based in india fallout do you think this is going to create for the cia do you think this is what's triggering a race america's the largest economy in the world it's also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world breaking the set is mostly about alternatives to the status quo but one might give real alternatives points to looking for the american dream the next they were just trying to survive it's time for americans and lawmakers are forced to wake up and start talking about the real causes of

problem. well you like me to want your comedy news with some t.v. once a comedy news to be a bare fisted no holds barred fight to the dad. but the truth vampire fighting into the next in the corporate elite the billionaire freaks well they're going to run. well that's what you get with my new show for jack to night. 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 for. a . is the good the bad of the very very part of a silly ugly the good. and when to a nation california tribe is paid air during the n.b.a. finals sixty seconds of an absolutely amazing ad it calls on the washington and al felt team to change its name yet is so effective you really need to see it fiery checco. forgotten.

indian. novel. michel. you know what ensued survivor spirituous patriots. sitting boom i was the engine for. mother father son. daughter chief. believed. to run among. the. strong. native americans call themselves many things. the one thing they don't. maisons stuff n.f.l.

commissioner roger goodell says that the name that the washington team uses honors american indians maybe should actually talk to some actual native americans and ask how they feel. bad john johnston indiana republican is running for state congress this year is under fire for saying on facebook that poor people should just be left to them with their and die seriously discussion about social welfare programs johnson said for almost three generations people in some cases have been given and outs it enabled so much of their paradigm in life to simply being given the stuff of life however meager or you see is a setting for a life of misery is life to them nevertheless no one has the guts to just let them wither and die no one who wants votes is willing to call a spade a spade and not surprisingly johnston is now trying to distance himself from those comments but let's be honest it's really hard to do because this is pretty much

standard republican rhetoric these days and a very very ugly scott esque like john johnston republican oklahoma state senate candidate find himself in hot water today for comments he made on laws or to rob morris the owner of a local news site said on facebook last year that he thinks gay people should be stoned to death. this guy posted on facebook that homosexuals should be stoned to death and my first response was. nobody would be stupid enough to do that but more espoused those postings from last summer on facebook at the time asked had commented on the pope saying who am i to judge on homosexuality ask posted old testament scripture calling for homosexuals to be punished someone asked so just to be clear you think we should execute homosexuals presumably by stoning as responds i think we would be totally in the right to do it. that goes against some parts of

libertarianism i realize and i'm largely libertarian but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss or chinese scott has because running as a republican not as a member of the taliban bad is insanely ability. to. raise ill or a superhero suit for the right. to the regret of comic book fans and people with a lewd sense of humor everywhere artist and the use statue of spider-man has been taken down from his home on the side of a mall in busan south korea you statue which had been on display for about a year and shows spider-man with his spidey senses tingling in outrage some people in south korea who thought that

a shopping mall was no place for an excited superhero after the complaints poured in you was given a choice he would take the statue down or change it finally and unfortunately in my opinion he chose to take it down as to why you decided to give his spider-man statue erection the first place he's telling people that it was all in the interest of giving it a more naturalistic appearance paul will never really know whether or not use statue it accurately depicts peter parker's and dolman one thing is for sure probably does a good job of showing how spy ring felt during that famous to see jane.

plus you've been living under a rock for the past twenty four hours you know by now that eric cantor the house majority leader lost his primary election last night to a little known college professor david brat this was a shocking upset one that no one saw it coming so ever since the news broke about cantor's defeat a roughly eight pm last night the beltway media has been all over trying to get to the bottom of just why exactly someone like you know someone so cantor someone so well established in connected would lose to someone like dave brat who spent less on his campaign than eric cantor spent during the same period time in state houses the official narrative is that cantor lost because he was too moderate from a republican point of view of course on immigration that he didn't spend enough time in his district and that the conservative base was sick and tired of someone who saw it as a sellout and while there is a lot of truth that narrative just check out any right wing blog in

a suit i mean it misses the bigger picture of what's really going on here one of the reasons if not the biggest reason eric cantor was it was that he totally underestimated the dark money machine that was the real force behind the dave brat campaign the media's making it seem like brat was some sort of underdog but in reality he's strapped to the hilt with billionaire support billionaire money in fact you could argue they pretty much zero as his job to people like the koch brothers and their cronies. john allison the former c.e.o. of b.b. and t. bank the current head of the koch funded or founded and funded cato institute gave brad's college of five hundred thousand dollars fellowship back in two thousand and ten so the dave brat could teach i and rand and libertarianism at randolph macon university like hundreds of other college professors across the country these days dave brat is really just a bought and paid for shill of charles and david koch and their buddies but the connections between brat in the dark money machine don't stop there he was also the

hand-picked candidate the koch back world of right wing media specifically right wing radio over the past few months right wing talkers like laura ingram and mark levin have been pushing brat and it's hacking cantor nonstop on the radio shows anger me even went so far as to say at a recent rally for brat that she wished that president obama had given eric cantor not five guantanamo detainees to the taliban in exchange for bowe bergdahl i. wish to give this thing. you did talk this through. the. tribute to the sons. of can't see if this is. the end of the piece over the years because it is treated you want to hear peter yeah. laura ingram and mark levin are both on the populist end of the republican party so it's not all that surprising that they'd want to see brad take down cantor but since both of them have taken a lot of money from conservative groups like americans for prosperity over the past

few years there's good reason to be suspicious of why they're pushing so hard specifically for brat as political reporter a few months ago in what should have been a blockbuster story with but was ignored by the mainstream media filings with the internal revenue service in the federal election commission as well as interviews and reviews of radio shows found that conservative groups spent nearly twenty two million dollars to broker and pay for involved advertising relationships known. sponsorships with a handful of influential talkers including back hannity laura ingram mark levin and rush limbaugh since then the sponsorship deals have grown more lucrative and more tea party or in levin alone apparently took home seven hundred or took about seven hundred fifty seven thousand dollars from the koch backed americans for prosperity just over the two thousand and twelve election cycle and if politicos report is accurate he's still taking money from and while we don't really know the specifics about just how much money ingram is taking from these conservative groups we do

know that she is taking it at least according to politico and that might go a long way toward explaining why she was so enthusiastic to back dave brat over eric cantor once you realize the dave brat wasn't just some random college professor but was actually the hand-picked candidate of the libertarian billionaire class the coax and its army of talk radio hosts it's easy to see another one of the major reasons that eric cantor lost we are living in a brave new world of dark money politics and in this day and age doing what eric cantor did and you know with the chamber of commerce k. street and wall street it only gets you so far if you want to win these days you need to win at least on the republican side you need to win the support of the coax the libertarian billionaire buddies and their allies in the talk radio world. sure working the coax doesn't always work out matt bevin failed miserably in kentucky.

but when the situation is right and you have a weak really unpopular candidate like cantor to run against. and especially if you've got a massive right wing radio presence literally in every town in the district right wing radio in every town are available in every single town in the seventh district in virginia where as there was no progressive radio there it works like a charm don't kid yourself dave brat's victory was not a fluke it was a test run the coax and their cronies now have a blueprint for how to beat establishment republicans all across the country. for them the revolution has just begun. ultimately the only way to stop this dark money revolution is to get money out of politics pass a constitutional amendment that says the corporations are not people they don't have human rights and the money isn't speech it's

a spending money for politics is not speaking it's a behavior it can be regulated as was the law in the united states from the george washington administration up until nine hundred seventy six when the supreme court said spending money is speech and the buckley vs foley case but in the meantime progressive billionaires and foundations my want to take a note from what conservatives are doing and start putting money into progressive television like free speech t.v. or progressive talk radio who loves the only chance to stop the koch revolution at least over the short term would be to try to beat them at their own game. and that's the way it is tonight wednesday june eleventh two thousand and fourteen and if you want to be a t.v. star talk to me face to face then e-mail me your video questions to your take my take g.-mail dot com we'll air them live every thursday night it's easy which phone in video mode hold it sideways record your selfie video question or comment and e-mail it to us at your take my tape at g. mail dot com you can also tweet your question or comment to me at tom underscore

score hartman and be sure to use the hashtag. talk did you to top and don't forget the markers he begins with you get out there get active tag you're it.

my marinate join me. for that impartial and financial reporting commentary and for news and much much. only on bombast and only. one of the wonderful shawne merriman a life should be polished face time to time getting a loan. played . a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher.

today larry king now the king of other words chris hardwick when i stopped trying to make the entertainment business happy and just pursue things that actually meant something to me that's when everything changed i pod cast my dad the year before he died and it was the single most important thing that i've ever done in my relationship with my dad and now i have it on the talking dance popularity it's building a community around this experience that people have or be something that it's part of their ritual and we kind of help them get back into their lives where therapy plus the trick is you always just when you're juggling three always just want to keep one in the air you know you can do a flourish when you're juggling five you want to try to ok great you know you got to keep one in the air that's all you do is keep one in the air well technically that was one in the air that's all next on larry king now.