08/31/12 08/31/12 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from tampa, florida, this is "democracy now!" breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency. we are broadcasting from the republican national convention, inside and out. >> mr. chairman, and delegates, i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >> republican presidential nominee mitt romney delivers his acceptance address and the last nine of the republican national convention. -- on the last night of the republican national convention. >> i can guarantee you this, it

barack obama is reelected, you'll be right. >> mitt romney's speech was seen as the most important of his political life. but it may have been overshadowed by the republicans mystery speaker who turned out to the actor and director clint eastwood. >> i would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. something i think is very important is that you, we -- we own this country. [applause] >> the justice department dropped its investigation of cia interrogators for their role in the deaths of prisoners in iraq and afghanistan. all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

mitt romney accepted the republican presidential nomination thursday night with a vow to revive the u.s. economy and a plea to voters disappointed with president obama's first term. >> how many days have you woken up thinking something special was happening in america? many of you felt that way on election day four years ago. hope and change had a powerful appeal. tonight ask a simple question. if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he is president obama? [applause] you know there's something wrong with the kind of job his son as president and the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. >> we will have more from romney's speech after the headlines. the justice department has announced it will not prosecute anyone involved in the killing

and torturing of prisoners in cia custody after a three-year investigation. the justice department had been probing the deaths of two men: one in iraq, one in afghanistan. gul rahman died in 2002 while being held a secret cia facility known as the salt pit in afghanistan. he had been shackled to a concrete wall in near freezing temperatures. manadel al-jamadi died in 2003 while in cia custody at iraq's notorious abu ghraib prison. his corpse was photographed packed in ice and wrapped in plastic. in a statement, holder said -- we will have more on this story later in the broadcast. a federal court has blocked the controversial voter id law in texas, saying it discriminates against people of color. the law requires voters to show

their photo id at the polls and texas had hoped to implement it before the november election, but on thursday, a three-judge panel said texas had failed to prove the law would not harm the voting rights of ethnic minorities. the justice department blocked a lot earlier this year, warning is to to disenfranchise at least 600,000 voters, a disproportionate number of which are latinos and other minorities. texas says it plans to appeal thursday's ruling to the supreme court. tropical storm isaac is heading west after lashing the gulf coast for the better part of today's. rainfall continues and parts of the gulf with a slow-moving storm continues to show its wrath. the port of new orleans and the city's airport are expected to reopen today as the clean-up effort begins the new orleans mayor mitch landrieu said the city is not yet out of the woods. >> it is not over until the game is over. a lot of stuff can still happen. we know that because our past

experience is, examples of how bad stuff has happened at this point in the storm. it is important for the people to remember, we're just in another phase. >> the obama administration has authorized royal dutch shell to begin preparatory activities for oil drilling in the arctic sea. on thursday, the interior department's said shell concerted operation, but must stop short of the actual drilling. the white house had said -- set a deadline and thursday's move suggests it will be approved. and do your report says iran may have expanded its stockpile of nuclear material of uranium enrichment. the international atomic energy agency says iran has doubled the effort of enrichment machines in stores in an underground bunker. in washington, jay carney said iran is violating its international requirements. >> we are closely studying the

details of the report, but broadly speaking, it is unsurprising iran is continuing as the report illustrates, we're in a position to closely observe iran's program and to detect any effort by iran to begin production of weapons-grade uranium. to reiterate, the president has made clear frequently that he is determined to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and he has led an unprecedented effort to pressure iran to live up to its obligations. >> the iaea report comes as iran continues to host a meeting of the non-aligned movement in tehran, addressing the 120 nation gathering thursday, iran's supreme leader repeated his government's insistence on a peaceful nuclear program and its call for nuclear-weapons-free world. >> i repeat that the islamic

republic of iran is not developing capabilities for nuclear-weapons, but also will not overlook the rights of its people and their needs for access to peaceful nuclear energy. our motto is nuclear energy for all. and a clear weapons is for none. we stand by both of these mottoes and know that breaking the bias that some western countries hold about the production of nuclear energy and the underlying fundamentals is to the benefit of all nations. >> back in the u.s., a military judge has said a trial date for the alleged army whistleblower bradley manning who is accused of passing classified materials to wikileaks. manning will stand trial on february 4 of next year. close to three years after his arrest. he faces life in prison. in breaking news, a number of people have reportedly been killed in a shooting attack in new jersey.

a lone gunman, allegedly opened fire supermarkets in old bridge. initial reports of between three and seven people, including the gunman, are dead. those are some of the headlines. from tampa, florida, this is "democracy now!" breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency. we are broadcasting from the pbs station wedu in tampa, florida. this is breaking with convention: war, peace, a presidency, "democracy now!" special daily two-hours of coverage from the republican national convention inside and out. republican mitt romney accepted the republican presidential nomination thursday at the convention in tampa. he took to the stage after being introduced by florida senator marco rubio. on his way to the podium, romney shook hands with numerous delegates, including as he passed the new york delegation,

billionaire backer david koch. he and his brother had promised to give hundreds of millions of dollars to the tea party and other right-wing causes as well as the attack ads against the obama administration. during romney's speech, he directly reached out to the voters who backed president obama four years ago. romney forcefully defended his work at the private equity firm bain capital. he pledged to create 12 million new jobs on foreign policy. he accused obama of throwing israel under the bus. we begin today's broadcast with an excerpt of mitt romney's acceptance speech. as president, i will protect the sanctity of life, honor the institution of marriage -- [applause] and i will guarantee america's

first liberty, the freedom of religion. [applause] president obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans -- [laughter] and to heal the planet. my promises to help you and your family. [applause]

i will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. president obama began his with an apology tour. america, he said, had dictated to other nations. no, mr. president, america has freed other nations from dictators. [applause] every american -- >> usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! >> every american was relieved

the day president obama gave the order, and seal team 6 took out osama bin laden. on another front, every american is less secure today because he has felt to slow iran's nuclear threat. in his first tv interview as president, he said we should talk to iran. we're still talking, and iran's centrifuges are still spinning. president obama has thrown allies like israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on castro's cuba. he abandoned our friends in poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but he is eager to give russia's president putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. [boos] under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty

and mr. putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone. [applause] we will honor america's democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. this is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of truman and reagan. and under my presidency, we will return to it once again. [applause] you might have asked yourself if these last years are really the america we want -- the america that was one first of the greatest generation.

does the america we want borrow a trillion dollars from china? does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? >> no! >> are those schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? and does the america we want succumb to resentment and division among americans? >> no1 >> the america we know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, the 19 to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness. everywhere i go in america, there are monuments that list those have given their lives for america. there is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, are what they did for a living. [applause]

they lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. they pledged allegiance to the united states of america. >> mitt romney speaking at the republican national convention, giving his acceptance address for his nomination. we're joined by craig unger, author of the new book, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." arun gupta is with us, a contributor for alternate. co-founder of the occupy wall street journal and the independent rid we welcome you both to "democracy now!" craig unger, you have been here all through the week. you have the very clear, in front of the scenes party, and many have the parties behind the scenes and what has been happening, the significance of this meeting. >> absolutely. we are force fed a really extravagant narrative with

15,000 reporters lapping at up. i think the real story is less visible. you can see there is in tampa bay a boat of a cracker bay, a 150-foot yacht and dozens of millionaires who party to entertain them because they're giving to romney. you saw sheldon adelson, who pledged to give $100 million to the republican cause. of course, david koch was a member of the new york delegation and said he may give as much as $400 million. >> in their meetings, celebrations were going on behind the scenes? >> absolutely. it was not on screen for the most part. >> arun gupta, your covering not only inside the convention, but outside as well. >> essentially, a military zone, a war zone outside the convention that was certainly part of the strategy.

protests were extremely limited. they were spirited, but maybe 500 to 1000 people at mess. it was quite remarkable. when you're moving with the protesters, there were blanketed by the media, then it was in his police bubble and surrounded by this surveillance. i think that was the intention. at one point, i happened upon the westboro baptist, the guys who hate fags bunch -- >> explain which you mean. >> an extremist religious group. it is basically one family. they show up at high-profile events with signs of lycee "gode hates fags." they show up at u.s. soldiers killed in war is a this is a good thing because a gay marriage, that god is punishing us. there really right wing

extremists. as i'm standing there watching, this handful of protesters down the street comes out, a couple hundred chanting "we are here,we're queer, we're anarchists and we're going to mess you up." the only people practicing democracy, and this is supposed to be great exercise in democracy, are right-wing fanatics and left-wing militants. everyone else has been scared off by this militarized spectacle. >> it was quite something to see and will happen again, at the democratic convention, $50 million at each convention given for security. as of yesterday afternoon, two arrests? they haven't talking about protesters would have a ied's? >> we hear these scare stories and what it does is it scare's the public away from the exercising any sort of dissent. i think given with the olympics,

one of the strategies -- the olympics are about pushing out the portuguese massive and restructure projects. what these conventions to, political, at nato, g8, they leave behind this massive security matrix to than police the poor. there is a conscious strategy. >> talk about what mitt romney addressed in a speech and what he did not. >> earlier in the week, karl rove asked what presidential election this reminded him of any said, 1980, reagan vs. carter. what i saw was mitt romney making a very deliberate attempt to beat reaganesque and frame obama as a failed president, to do so in what seemed to be

gentle language. he tried, but failed. to protect from himself a sort of sunny view of the future, use the word feature a least six times in his speech, and would help people with their personal lives in a real way. >> arun gupta? >> this is definitely a strategy. what is interesting, it has -- we still hear the same supply- side economics. we will cut taxes, cut federal spending, and this will magically stimulate the economy. what ryan said, we will get federal spending down below 20%. this will be disastrous. right now he's in, we will essentially cut the economy and will somehow revived it. it is the same voodoo economics that did not work 30 years ago and will certainly not work today. >> mitt romney said the country was in a worst spacstate now thn

when obama took office. >> business and growing jobs is about taking risks, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. it is about dreams. usually does not work out exactly as you may have imagined. steve jobs was fired at is the n free enterprise system to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the american people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow's prosperity. [applause]

that is why every president since the great depression who came before the american people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and set the satisfaction -- you are better off than you were four years ago. except jimmy carter. and except this president. [applause] this president can ask us to be patient. this president can tell us it was someone else's fault. this president can tell us the next four years ago get it right. but this president cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office. >> that is mitt romney in his presidential nomination address. arun gupta, he invoked steve

jobs. you have written extensively about the company that makes apple products in china, foxconn. >> both parties to it time to praise steve jobs. >> when people often to the number counts in speeches, they often say, how many times to the person mentioned jobs. did they mean steve jobs? >> exactly. this is supposed to be the model for the 21st century. what is the apple economy? much of the workforce is based in china, the third world countries. the jobs in the u.s., it is not all these engineering or created jobs, but basically this contingent overwork work force. this is not any sort of economic model that is going to address

the severe structural economic crises afflicting this country. >> we are appointed take a break, then come back. arun gupta is with us and craig unger has just published a new book called "boss robo." when we come back, we'll hear one of craig unger's interactions with karl rove this week. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. from tampa, florida, this is "democracy now!" breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency. next to we will be covering the

democratic nafta convention in charlotte. we are here in tampa. it is the morning after, the morning after the republican presidential acceptance address of mitt romney. our guests are arun gupta and craig unger and craig scan of the new book called "bos rove." he confronted the subject of your most recent book with karl rove. >> i am craig unger with vanity fair. >> of course you are. >> i have a new book coming out next recall "boss rove." >> go ahead, launch away. before entering the republican primaries you to or were highly critical of sarah palin, rick

santorum -- >> are there any questions? >> were you doing that intentionally to help romney's chances and did you discuss it at all with roger ayles? >> no and no. i was complimentary of some of those people of the same time spread when donald trump and rick perry went out and embrace the further issue, i was critical. >> [unintelligible] >> it comes close to saying it proved he depends upon dana simpson this is a person and got her to investigate the governor of alabama. this is going to be an entertaining work of fiction. >> [unintelligible] .> i am not at all but a > >> craig unger, talk about this

interaction and each of the points that karl rove makes. >> i was a little surprised he took on the book. normally, he is a very, very disciplined political operative. here he sort of lost it. strategically, i think he would of been smarter to ignore me and ignore the book. instead, he put a lot of attention on it. he seems to blame again and again this woman he referred to, dana jill simpson. she had absolutely nothing to do the question i asked about was collaborating with roger ayles. he explicitly misrepresented the book and said i called him a murderer, which i, which-- >> explain what he was referring to. >> in the ohio election of 2004, there were enormous number of accusations of fraud. there were investigations, civil

lawsuits, and so forth. an enormous amount of evidence was destroyed. a court ordered the balance be impounded, but they were destroyed. i talked to the democratic secretary of state jennifer brunner who succeeded the republican and she planned to investigate this and she got to office, but happen to go by her office just before she officially took over the job, and when she walked in, she saw the shredding of thousands of thousands of documents. finally, a man named mike connell, who was the computer guru of rove's, he was about to be a witness, and he went down in a plane crash at a time that happened to be very crucial in the investigation. >> and so his point your calling him a murderer? >> that is where he got that from >> but the significance of

karl rove here. while everyone is covering the pomp on the floor of the convention, our videographer was filming -- he figured out which was the skybox of sheldon adelson, who is the multi billionaire casino magnate in las vegas who has promised to give something like $100 million to the republican party and now spending and has switched from newt gingrich now to mitt romney -- you were able to focus on sheldon adelson and karl rove last night as mitt romney was addressing the convention. colleaguesven rove's at "the wall street journal" are saying, isn't this a complete perversion of the electoral process? john mccain in 2008 by contrast

spent three and $75 million, rove has about $1 billion, the koch brothers alone said they may put up as much as $400 million. when you add in romney's and the rnc take, at your up to $1.8 milliobillion. you can imagine all of that money into the battleground states in a targeted way at a key moment. we will have to wait to see what difference it makes. >> your comment? >> one of the things that those and remarked is, we have kind of entered the era of big science and politics. big signs is spending massive amounts of money for incremental improvements. if we actually look at the number of swing states and house small the number of swing voters are in those swing states, we may be talking about only a couple of 4 million to 6 million

votes been fought over, yet over $2 billion is going to be spent in this election. that is something like $300 to $500 per voter. i think in the future, it would be easier to give them vouchers through the >> when romley walked down the aisle toward the stage thursday night for the biggest moment of his life to accept the presidential republican presidential nomination, he was shaking a number of people's hands. what did not go very much noticed is he came to the new york delegation, shook the hand of conservative billionaire and major political donor david koch. groups and the network of david koch and his brother charles intend to spend something like nearly $400 million ahead of the 2012 election. david koch was honored yesterday by americans for prosperity, the nonprofit spending money on campaign ads. david koch told the news site

politico he disagrees with the republican party stands on same- sex marriage, believes the u.s. should consider raising taxes in order to balance the budget. when he sat down as a member of the new york delegation on thursday night on the convention floor, i went over to ask him a question. while he started to answer me, the delegates and security around him stood at one by one, creating a human wall between us. one of those who stood up was chair of the republican party of new york and the son-in-law of richard nixon.o first you hear my attempt to question david koch. we're going to try to play that in a moment. the issue of money and politics, craig unger? >> the spectacle everyone

witnessed, at the 15,000 reporters report on, is the nomination of mitt romney. what i saw happening on screen was the coronation of karl rove as the party boss, and it means he has an unelected position with no term limits, and he gets to preside over this vast sum of money and to engineer how it will be spent, and induce them not just for this election, but for the foreseeable future. i think we should also not forget the base of the republican party. certainly, it is fueled by billionaires, but the tea party based very much supports it. looking around the convention hall, it had the reverse of the 1950's country club. nonetheless, the tea party really supports this notion of meritocracy. if you are rich, it is because you're successful, so you must

be smart and capable. >> i want to go to the questioning of david koch right now. mr. koch, do you think unchecked concentration of wealth will undermine democracy? >> i am sorry, i am deaf in one interview. >> we're not doing interviews. >> the me ask the question again. >> no. we're not going to talk -- let me ask mr. cox. >> what we need is a country led by mitt romney with a vision of an opportunity society of free people and free enterprise. that is what made this country great, and that is what he is going to do. >> are you concerned about, especially young people, looking at what is happening in the country where a handful of multimillionaires and

billionaires are so disproportionately determining the democratic process? >> that is a statement that is not true. this country is governed by the people. that is what it has always been based on. >> will you please get moving? >> i will print i will quit mr. cox answered a question, why cannot mr. koch? i only have one question. >> [unintelligible] >> why? >> we're trying to listen. >> we are media. do you think the media is disrupting the convention? i thought you operant press coverage? you know you use the press all the time reid i am asking one question and you answered it. i asked mr. cox one question -- >> that individual does not want to talk to you. >> i don't know, i cannot even see him. >> we would we would--

>> this is the press. we are allowed to ask a question in a dignified way. >> we need to clear this aisle, so you need to move. thank you. >> basically, this happens all the time at the convention around mr.o, one of the most powerfupowerful people at the convention. when you ask a question, a group of men stand up and protect him from the press. these are supposed to be celebrations of democracy, these conventions. there's a reason why both conventions welcome 15,000 journalists. they want to get their message out, but we're not supposed to be simply stenographers to power. we are there to ask serious questions. and to follow the money. this is "democracy now!" on the floor of the republican national convention. >> that was my attempt to interview david koch on the

floor of the republican national convention. when mitt romney made his entrance, he walked down the aisle of the republican convention. as he approached the new york delegation, he shook the hand of state republican party chair ed koch and shook hands with david koch. while "democracy now!" was there and capture the handshake on video, the pool feed the networks showed, cut away to show to in this as a women supporters, and an overhead shot of the convention center. then it came back to romney shaking hands further down the aisle as he ascended the stage. this is significant because of how powerful david koch is for mitt romney. originally, did not have his support, it went to newt gingrich, who also saw in the

suite of sheldon adelson last time in the night before. mitt romney went to shake his hand. he put his hand on the shoulder last night as he is coming to give his acceptance address, and pointed at him read >> the triumph of karl rove. you do have a real [unintelligible] between the establishment and the tea party and karl rove really embodied the establishment. romney was much more of an establishment candidate, not a tea party favorite. you had rove quietly behind the scenes. romney never really caught fire. he rarely got 20%, maybe 30% of votes in the primaries. but he outlasted everyone as they were shot in the back. finally rove was able to harness the tea party dynamism and get the big backers like the koch brothers and sheldon adelson,

and that meant vast sums of money they are able to spend today. >> thank you for being with us, craig unger and arun gupta. craig unger wrote, "boss rove: inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power." it hits bookshelves on september 4. you can read and that served on -- an exceprt on democracynow.org. when we come back, the speech of clint eastwood, the mr. speaker. ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. from tampa, florida, this is "democracy now!" breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency.

this is our special daily to our coverage from the republican-to convention inside and out. next to make we will be doing the same thing in charlotte for the democratic convention. one unusual speech at the closing of the republic convention thursday generated so much attention it nearly threatened to overshadow romney's acceptance of the presidential nomination. the actor clint eastwood data rambling 11-8 minute address that appeared to be completely unscripted. during the speech, the 82-year- old actor addressed an empty chair the state's three pretended president obama was sitting. >> so have got mr. obama sitting here. i was going to ask him a couple of questions. i remember three and a half years ago when mr. obama won the election.

and though i was not a big supporter, i was watching that night when he was having that thing and they're talking about hope and change and there were talking about, yes, we can, and it was dark outdoors, and it was nice, and people were lighting candles. they were saying i just thought, this was great. everybody is crying. oprah was crying. [laughter] i was even crying. i have not cried that hard since. -- i had not cried that hard since i found out there's 23 million unemployed people in this country. [laughter] [applause] that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace. we have not done enough, this demonstration has now done enough to cure that. whatever interest they have is not strong enough.

i think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. [applause] so, mr. president, how do you handle promises that you have made when you're running for election, and how you handle it? i mean, what you say to people? do you just, you know, i know -- people were wondering -- you don't, ok. i know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you did not close gitmo. and i thought, well, closing gitmo -- why close it up? we spent so much money on it.

i thought maybe was an excuse. what you mean, shut up? [laughter] ok. i thought it was just because some had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown new york city. [laughter] [applause] i've got to hand it to you. i have to give credit where credit is due. you did finally overrule that. so now we're moving onward. i know you were against the war in iraq, and that's ok. but you thought the war in afghanistan was ok. you know, i mean, he thought that was something worth doing. we didn't check with the russians to see how they did there for 10 years. [applause] but we did it.

and it is something to be thought about, and i think that when we get to maybe -- i think you've mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. and you gave that target date, and i think mr. romney asked the lessons will question, you know, he says, why are you giving out the date now? why don't you just bring them home tomorrow morning? [applause] i thought, yeah -- i am not going to shut up. it is my turn. [laughter] anyway, we're going to have to have a little chat about that. and then i just wondered, all these promises -- i wondered about, you know, -- what?

what do you want to tell romney? i cannot tell him to do that. i cannot tell him to do that to himself. [laughter] you're absolutely crazy. you are getting as bad as biden. [applause] of course we all know biden is the intellect of the democratic party. [laughter] just kind of a grin with a body behind it. [laughter] but i just think they're so much to be done and i think that mr. romney and mr. ryan are two guys that can come along.

see, and never thought was a good idea for attorneys to be president, anyway. [applause] attorneys are always taught to argue and always weigh everything. always devil's advocates for this and bifurcating this and that, all that stuff. time, what doit's think, for maybe a businessman? how about that? >> that was actor clint eastwood known for directing the oscar- winning film "unforgiven," " million-dollar baby," getting an apparent unscripted speech. he spoke less than an hour before mitt romney took to the stage to set the nomination. the speech received any response

on social me with tens of thousands taking to twitter following the newly created handle invisible obama. responded to the speech by tweeting -- the romney campaign said the actor's apparent ad libbing was "a break from all the political speeches and the crowd enjoyed it." or romney spokesperson said "you cannot look at him to the same political lens you would other politicians. he's clint eastwood's." we are broadcasting from wdu and tampa, florida. from tampa, florida, this is "democracy now!" breaking with convention: war, peace and the presidency. we will be in charlotte next week. we turn right now to glenn greenwald, who is a well-known commentator, writer, ac

constitutional lawyer. i want to ask about clint eastwood's address. it was quite remarkable in his raising the issue of president obama cannot not closing guantanamo, and also going to the issue of war. somehow saying that president obama had not ended the war in afghanistan, which he had not, but mitt romney would pull out troops tomorrow, which in fact, is not what mitt romney has said but the opposite. his criticized president obama for ending these wars to sen. it looks like we may have just lost glenn greenwald as he is on videostream. the me give a little information as we try to reach him. a second subject we want to take up with glenn greenwald, and

that is the latest news that just came down yesterday of attorney general eric holder announcing the justice department would not prosecute anyone involved in the killing and torturing of prisoners in cia custody. the justice department have been investigating the deaths of two men -- one in iraq, one in afghanistan. gul rahman died in 2002 while being held a secret cia facility known as the salt pit in afghanistan. he had been shackled to a concrete wall in near freezing temperatures. manadel al-jamadi died in 2003 while in cia custody at iraq's petraeus abu ghraib prison. his corpse was photographed packed in ice and wrapped in plastic. on thursday, holder said --

the decision has been one of the constitution -- criticized by human rights and the organizations. will the justice department dropped its probe of interrogators involved in the deaths, the government is still prosecuting said a whistleblower john kiriakou who exposed details about waterboarding to the press. that is the second issue i would like to address with glenn greenwald, the columnist and blogger for "the guardian." he is author of, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." we will get to clint eastwood's address, but let's first deal with this very significant justice department decision. >> it has been clear for quite

some time the obama administration generally and president obama specifically were eager to protect bush officials and cia officials from any accountability of any kind. they have sort of done it incrementally. the first set when president obama was inaugurated, anyone who complied with the permission slips given that legalized torture the worked with in this would be completely shielded from wrongdoing as with the lawyers and officials who ordered those techniques. but eric holder said there were at least 100 cases involving deaths of detainees are severe and brutal beatings that he had read the files about and was very disturbed by, and could not in good conscience allow to go completely shielded. he said he would ask for preliminary review to see if criminal charges were warranted in those cases. last year in tunis said there were closing the books on all the cases except for the to you

just described, that are particularly the tories and brittle where detainees were killed. in the case of the iraqi detainee at abu ghraib, a military autopsy found he had been killed, died by virtue of homicide and blunt, to his head and chest. in afghanistan, someone basically froze to death after being beaten and chained to a floor without clothes. now the obama administration announced even in those cases, clearly murder, will be shielded as well. it is a complete white washing for any and accountability -- for any and all accountability. there also protected from international investigations like spain and germany and civil cases were the victims of the torture regime tried to hold their torture is accountable. there were succeeded in having them dismissed. it is a complete whitewash as of yesterday.

>> we are here at the republican convention and will go to the democratic convention in charlotte. it is very much this week the news coverage is the vast difference in the candidates want to say that themselves, the 20 democrats and republicans, why he should choose one over the other. what are your thoughts when you look at this issue, for example, and others? >> you can find a handful of issues in which there are genuine differences and they tend to be in their own social issues like same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, the kind of supreme court justices one would appoint. those are not insignificant, quite important, but in the scheme of the policies that are harming the people of the u.s. and shaping the kind of country we have come overwhelmingly those issues are ones that find full-scale complete agreement between the parties. if you look at the policies that take the most money, that have the most effect on citizenry

like the drug war, the national security and surveillance operating with total secrecy, whistleblowers, the endless war we're in, the supremacy of wall street and our nation's oligarchs in shaping policy through their lobbyists and funding, you see virtually no difference between the parties. for that reason, those issues are not even mentioned or discussed as part of this election, because there is nothing for the candidates to say about the other critically because essentially they have the same position. for example, closing the books on the torture cases. that can never be part of the campaign. it is inconceivable if the candidates are only romney and obama because they have the same views on these issues the only hope for these critical issues to be addressed is to allow some of the third-party candidates to be included in the debate to give the media coverage, so it

least the republicans and democrats are challenged on the positions they hold in common. >> finally, let's go back to clint eastwood's address when he is addressing the empty chair of president obama and talks about obama not closing guantanamo, says about guantanamo or obama that he has not ended the war in afghanistan, and that mitt romney would pull out the troops the next morning. >> obviously, the speech was so bizarre in many ways, which is one of the reasons i really loved it. these conventions are so scripted and manufactured and contrived. to have this moment of spontaneity was refreshing. the weirdest part of the speech was not only when he criticized obama for not pulling out the troops tomorrow as if romney would, when romney has said he

has made a mistake by committing to withdraw, the stranger part was he seemed to criticize the commencement of the war in afghanistan itself by saying, why did we look at what happened to the soviet union and their experience and occupying afghanistan for 10 years? meaning we should never have convinced that war in the first place. the republicans believe that war was a good war and we should stay and somehow cheered. it just showed how of script it was that he was inadvertently criticizing the war policies of both the democrat and republican parties without his even realizing he was doing at. >> thank you for being with us, glenn greenwald, author of, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]