occupy anti greed activists mark for months and their movement by taking on the white house and capitol hill thousands were expected to take part but the event failed to draw in the numbers organizers wanted . but when it comes to big money and america's politics lobbyists are the people who know exactly how it works jack used to be one and he now tells us why he thinks washington is corrupt to the core. i'm sitting down with jack a bomb off once the most powerful lobbyist in washington referred to as the man who bought washington he bribed government officials in order to gain political support for his clients in two thousand and six he was convicted of ripping off his clients jack avram all served three and a half years in prison guilty of conspiracy fraud and tax evasion mr avery mouth thank you very much for coming since your release from jail you've been very vocal about corruption in washington i read your book and i got a sense of your frustration about the fact that while you were sent to jail people involved in the same corrupt practices are sitting pretty in their offices on capito

sent to jail people involved in the same corrupt practices are sitting pretty in their offices on capitol hill well i'm not as frustrated that their people don't go to jail or prison prisons not fun and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy but i guess what i'm frustrated about is that when they had my hearings and trials and when i was sent off there was a big exclamation and celebration here that they cleaned up washington but in fact they didn't clean up washington and so when i came out after rethinking my life and what i was involved in i decided that if they want to clean up washington that i would help them figure out exactly how to do it during that senate hearing when you were publicly bashed by the senate is what were you thinking what were your thoughts as you faced the distinguished panel well i probably was thinking they were a little less distinguished than others were thinking i was reminded continually by every word out of their mouth that they were among the many who participated in some of the corruption that they were accusing me of when one of the senators a senator campbell

the time came to higher the lobbyist it was growing i went to capitol hill. first the first couple hires i came came immediately to me. they didn't wait a week. they gave notice and they joined right. so i didn't notice anything. as i started to hire more and i started to look at some of the players on capitol hill manly the staff and i really hope we can get her or him to join my practice, 1i mentioned as i noticed at that point once they read it they would start to have in mind where they were going to go in a year or to which i guess is only natural people start thinking about their next job. and i noticed the amazing power on them and their office also the 70 became innocence our agents and in fact more than our agencies all the things that benefit us and our clients that we couldn't even think of perhaps as a way of making sure before they got there. >> host: in your would you describe this as one of the biggest problems in washington. >> guest: right. it's one of the problems in terms of the corruption, and it's also -- and it's not to say that everybod

to well occupy capitol hill demonstrations march the four month anniversary of the birth of the movement and our team was there to capture all the action. and from internet censorship to worldwide protests this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to two thousand and twelve but the trends research institute says the future is crystal clear those predictions in just a few moments. good evening it's wednesday january eighteenth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of and you're watching r.t.e. . well if you have to dust off your old copy of microsoft and carter today you're not alone because wiki pedia seem to be down it's been lights out for some of the internet's most popular websites say in protest of the anti-piracy legislation that is making its way through congress the so-called sopa and pipa stand for the stop online piracy act and the protect ip act the hollywood backed house and senate bills respectively are designed to fight online piracy it sounds like an innocent enough thing well according to the music and film industries these bills are vital in fact to

i went to capitol hill and talk to some of my friends. the first couple of tires hires ahead came immediately to me. they didn't wait even a week are kho they joined right away so i didn't really notice anything but as i started to hire more and more and i started to look at some of the players on capitol hill mainly the staff and thing gosh, really hope i can get her or him to join my practice, when i mentioned it that i noticed at that moment, they would start to have in mind where they were going to go in a year or two which is i guess only natural. people start thinking about their next job. and i noticed i had an amazing power on them and their in their office and all of a sudden they became innocent very tense and impact more than our agents. perhaps as a way as making sure they feather their nest before they got there. >> host: and in your book you describe this is one of the biggest problems with the system in washington. >> guest: right, is one of the problems in terms of the corruption and it's also, and it's not to say everybod

hundreds of occupy activists rallied in front of washington's capitol hill on tuesday voicing their angerover the overwhelming influence of corporations on u.s. lawmakers the protest was authorized to take place on the capital's west lawn but anyone who stepped outside of that sanctioned piece of land was arrested by police the rally signified a new wave of occupy protest as it happened in the very heart of the u.s. capital and turned into a street march for the white house and the final destination it reflects nationwide anger at congress which is c.n.n. separable rating slump to an all time low according to the latest polls a little later this hour to talks to a man who knows all about the lobbying behind the scenes of capitol hill and even had to serve time in jail for his involvement in it here's a preview. the problem is the average citizen here is not engaged or want to play and win here it will bring in money and influence members of congress to vote on things that are not good for the country and not good for the general interest because somebody with special interests is pushing

susan crabtree writing the president is trying to slice through partisan divisions on capitol hill and urging congress to swiftly take up taxes for small businesses encouraging startups in an effort to spur new jobs. the president sent the message to congress that draws on various proposals that draws on democrat and republicans. all of this in an of the to act on an initiative the white house announced last year, creating jobs, encouraging entrepreneurs to follow suit. the president speaking to reporters briefly from the cabinet room at the white house. >> hello, everybody. this is my first cabinet meeting after the state of the union address. it gives me the opportunity to share my ideas and initiatives with my cabinet but also to get some feedback from them. one of the top priorities i mentioned during the state of the union was the need for us to promote small business. and i'm very pleased that we've got karen mills here who has participated in our meetings before but now an official member of the cabinet. it is a symbol of how important it is for us to spur entrepreneurship, to h

john gonzalez is live on capitol hill. good morning. >> good morning. more than 1000 protesters converged here on capitol hill, and they marched. the permit stated that this was scheduled to be a peaceful demonstration, but there were problems including four arrest and a smoke bomb thrown in the direction of the white house. in an act solidarity and in an effort to decry the influence of corporate money several protesters converged on the west lawn of the capital, this time targeting congress. >> we are the backbone of america. >> at times, there were scuffles between police and protesters. capitol police arrested four people. at one point a smoke bomb was tossed over the fence at the white house. >> since 2008, americans are 8% poorer and the average congressman is 25% richer. there is something wrong in this country. >> with grievances in mind, the 99% wanted this rally to be the largest yet. they fell short of the goal of 10,000, but the message was heard loud and clear. >> obama. we got some stuff to talk about. >> a small group of protesters attemp

the protesters have shifted their focus from wall street to capitol hill and here they are hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the u.s. capitol building they have a permit to protest on this lawn but we have already seen several people arrested. protesters say when the interests of big corporations are at stake their voice their interests no longer count and they're angry at the fact that the influence of money is only set to grow in u.s. politics supreme court's decision now allows cooperations to funnel as much money as they wanted to candidates and protesters say it's legalized corruption. the cozy relationship between big businesses on lawmakers here ledge to the complete lack of oversight over wall street which brought about the financial crisis of two thousand and eight and not just americans were affected but the whole world so people here want money out of politics but it's easier said than done and a lot of people especially outside the movement are very much skeptical about whether the protests can actually change something some say that the tense and end of banners y

but everybody else had worked on capitol hill. so my practice was growing, i needed people to help, i went to capitol help among my friends. now, the first couple of hires i had came immediately to me, they didn't wait even a week. they gave notice and joined right away. so i didn't really notice anything. but as i started to hire more and more folks and i started to look at some of the players on capitol hill, mainly the staff, and think, gosh, i really hope i can get her or him to join my practice, when i mentioned it, i noticed at that moment once they agreed, they would start to have in mind where they were going to go in a year or two, which i guess is only natural, and i noticed it had an amazing power on them and on their office. all of a sudden they became, in essence, our agents. and, n., more than our agents, they thought of things that benefited our clients that we couldn't even think of perhaps as a way of making sure they feathered their nest before they got there. >> host: and you describe this as one of the biggest p

capitol hill police wanted the protestors who got their permit to stay on the lawn of the capitol. four people were arrested, three for crossing a police line and one for assaulting an officer. later, in the afternoon, hundreds of hundreds of the 1 to 2,000 people here marched through the streets around capitol hill and went to the rayburn house office building in the canyon and lobbied for a while and kind of blocked independence avenue and jefferson place. d.c. for awhile, as they marched down the street. i would say traffic was held up for five or six minutes and their point was that they did can muster enough bodies on shut down the city a little at a time and, as usual, the police allowed them to do it as long as they didn't lay down in the street. the cops managed the crowd as they went along. tonight, between now and 11:00, more teach-ins, a vigil, and discussions on what to do now. these people behind me don't like the way america's going and they want congress to pay more attention to the people who they say need help, the working class and middle class. live on capitol hi

we're live on capitol hill tonight. a beautiful night in washington, d.c., unseasonably warm. 2 1/2 hours until the president makes his way into the capitol building to deliver his election year state-of-the-union address to the american people. he delivers it as the republican campaign for president enders full steam. florida primary just next week. as we await the president tonight i spoke with one of the republicans who hopes to replace him. the former house speaker newt gingrich. he was in florida. among our subjects i asked him about some of his comments in last night's republican debate that have the fact checkers pretty busy today. >> you also talked about kwloub left office and governor romney was saying you left in disgrace. sir, you said this. >> i left the speakership after the 1998 election because i took responsibility for the fact that our results weren't as good as they should be. i think that's what a leader should do. i took responsibility. and i didn't want to stay around as nancy pelosi has. >> some o

but already hours before the address, republicans, both here on capitol hill and on the campaign trail, were voicing their objections. >> the republican.... >> suarez: senate minority leader mitch mcconnell spoke on the senate floor this morning. >> it's hard not to feel a sense of disappointment even before tonight's speech is delivered because while we don't yet know all the specifics, we do know the goal. the goal isn't to conquer the nation's problems. it's to conquer republicans. the goal isn't to prevent gridlock. but to guarantee it. >> suarez: democratic majority leader harry reid urged the opposition to be open to the president's ideas. >> for three years the president has reached out to republicans. now is the time to work with him on common ideas to boost legislation not stalemate. i ask my republican colleagues to give his bipartisan vision the consideration it deserves. >> suarez: the men who want mr. obama's job charge there's nothing bipartisan about the president's plan. republicans mitt romney annuity gingrich spoke at separate events in florida. >> tonight we're also

john gonzalez is on capitol hill this morning kurt >> good morning. first it was occupy wall street. now it is occupy congress. at least 30 activist groups and at least 10,000 protestors on facebook say there will be here later this morning to greek legislators as they go back to work for. they want to make sure -- to greet legislators as they go back to work. as lawmakers head back to capitol hill for the start of a new session, protesters from around the country will gather for what they are hoping will be the largest occupy demonstration yet. today's rally comes at a time when the approval rating for legislators is extremely low. according to a "the washington post"-abc news poll, 84% of americans disapprove of the job congress is doing, with almost 2/3 saying they strongly disapprove, numbers that cannot sit well with politicians. it starts with a five trillion dollar deficit reduction. a late february deadline on the payroll tax holiday is still looming. 30 activist groups are paying close attention. the day will include a rally and the general a

occupy activists marking four months of their movement by taking on the white house and capitol hill but fail to get the numbers they want to. address and markets close in the blackouts or rather choppy trading day will do will bring you the figures in other markets performance and other business bulletin. it's seven pm in the russian capital you're watching r t with me and he said now our top story moscow is vowing to do everything it can to make sure the u.n. security council doesn't sanction a military intervention in syria that pledge from russia's top diplomat as he wrapped up a briefing on twenty eleventh's foreign policy parties peter oliver is at the foreign ministry. russia blames both the assad government and the opposition for fighting continuing in the country and moscow wants to see both sides put down their weapons and come together around the table to try and hammer out a peaceful solution to what's happening there now what was new that was said by sergey lavrov on wednesday is that the proposed peace talks that are being put forward by the arab league which could take

as we await the president, he's in the car driving to capitol hill.et up over here, everyone at the white house says this is a substantive policy speech. in this political election year, you know there will be a lot of politics. >> reporter: there is. i'm always stunned the amount of time members of congress waste all day sitting on the aisle just to be seen shaking the president's hand. some have been sitting there since 8:00 a.m. some think, don't they have anything better to do? >> they keep justifying this extremely low approval rating by the public. the public look at this and say, this is silly. you have more dignity than this. we send you there to do great things, not wear bright clothes and sit on the aisle. >> these are members of the senate arriving. we're 22 minutes away from the start of the president's speech. 23 minutes away or so. our coverage is going to be continuing all the way through to midnight. a lot to discuss, as we continue to wait for the president's arrival on capitol hill. we will take a quick break and our coverage continu

on capitol hill today, talking about a threat growing every week iran and nuclear weapons. >> they are able to produce a uranium-enriched weapon. >> this gruesome of the greatest attention. iran continues to unveil more sophisticated arms and new weapons meaning new worries for the u.s. and israel combined with the thwarted plot to kill the saudi ambassador even at a restaurant where lawmakers could pathetically be dining making matters worse. it>> it is true preparation. >> they are getting the ability to dock 12 small boats, support four helicopters, a video conference rooms, and an onboard operations center. the pentagon is looking for more money to rebuild the bomb to penetrate their underground nuclear facility. >> we will rigorously conference any behavior and it would be regrettable and destructive. we hope this will not take place, but if it does this jury will remember whether the americans or iranians will win. >> any american move would be mirrored by israel. beyond economic sanctions, an option is on the table. >> thanks so much, scott. coming up, president obama kicking ti

of how powerless average americans are when the interest so big guys like that are at stake on capitol hill well americans have a very tough time competing with these special interests the special interests come in with a lot of money and you're right it's miniscule amounts of money compared to what they could do and some of them do a lot of money but it's still a small amount the problems the average citizen here is not engaged politically and when they're able to bring in money and influence members of congress to vote on things that are not good for the country and not good for the general interest because somebody with a special interest is pushing on it that's where the problem starts so what i propose in my book in the effort that i've been engaged in since i've gotten out of prison is a way to separate money out of politics here and basically to say that if you're a lobbyist or you're somebody who's trying to get something from the government here you may not give a dollar politically of any kind and that's one of the four things that i've proposed to clean up the system i think it's

the demonstrators expected converts on capitol hill beginning at 9:00 a.m.le obama is celebrating her 48th birthday today. president obama has not said how he plans to celebrate his wife's birthday. they are using the occasion to solicit donations for his reelection campaign. >> new details this morning on that cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of italy. the hearing will determine if the captain will remain in jail. the incident killed six people and more than two dozen remain missing. >> pandemonium just started. it was horrible. >> survivors of the crash off the coast of italy are returning home and they are talking about their narrow escape. >> when it rolled on that side i figured this was it. >> the "costa concordia" was caring for thousand passengers and crew when it hit a reef friday. the passengers say there were never told what happened, only that there was an electrical problem. >> i thought they should have come out immediately. >> it sounded like a freight train went through the dining room. >> two americans are among the two dozen passe

will be in washington for us throughout the day as occupiers make their way to capitol hill. well the rating agencies keep raining the blows on of the leader of europe now the euro zone's fragile balance fund has been downgraded again in standard and poor's the firm which demoted nine nations and stripped france and australia of their top satis says those downgrades meant the rescue fund lost one hundred eighty billion euros in aaa guarantees and that's marked its own score down as a result better news for france is that the other major ratings firms are keeping it in its high position with president sarkozy saying s. and p's solitary move won't affect his debt reducing policy but as r.t. hears next hour it's the currency not the credit scores who are the root of the problem. is that when you look at the reality of the past twenty years the european union has changed very little by the way if we remember back then we were still having referendums on such decisions so the mass treat referendum got through but in the second referendum on the lisbon treaty the french voted no in

appreciate it. >>> we're watching live pictures on capitol hill.he house is debating the final bill, designed to strengthen pents for drug smugglers who use airplanes from mexico. we're expecting the congresswoman to arrive in the chamber. >>> and the daring rescues in somalia. >>> but first today's tlrivia question -- which presidents never delivered a state of the union message. we'll get a follow wednesday from you if you answer the question. it's special today, because this is the only wednesday we have this week. we'll be right back. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely, but for many, it gets skin clearer fast, within 2 months, and keeps it clearer up to 9 months. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight inf

. >>> every year the state of the union means that roads gets closed for hours around capitol hill. those closed roads affect pedestrians. let's take a welcome at a map of the closings. pretty much every street two to three blocks from the capitol. and the closures will begin tonight at 7:00 p.m. the streets will stay closed until a few hours after the president's speech. pedestrians will not be allowed in the capitol square starting at 6:00 p.m. metro buses and circular buses will be routed around those closures. now we have a list of all the streets which are going to be closed. go to our website, wusa9.com and look on the morning news page. >>> by the way, you can watch tonight's state of the union address live right here on channel 9. our coverage will begin at 9:00 p.m. and we will bring you the republican response from indiana governor mitch daniels. and get reaction from local reaction tonight on 9 news now at 11:00. >>> mitt romney made more than $40 million over the past two years. that's according to his tax returns. in 2010, about 14% of his earnings went to taxes. his tax