citizens united really does favor, you know, and quite lofty rhetoric the value of disclosure. i think if you look at justice kennedy's majority opinion it sees free speech and disclosure coming hand-in-hand. i think justice kennedy felt the benefit of citizens united is an opinion it promoted free speech. it helped voters get more and more information from anybody who wanted to opine during an election and at the same time more robust disclosure who would make sure more speakers who was speaking and evaluate those messages. and in addition, you know, i think as allison said as well there's also other interests that the court have looked at over the years of disclosure in terms of fighting corruption and preserving the integrity of the electoral process. now, the bad news for those of us who are sort of fighting for more robust disclosure of money and politics is that citizens united really sort of overestimated what existing disclosure laws looked like and didn't necessarily recognize that, you know, all of the changes that it was going to create would have a huge kind of unin

detention at the heart of the citizens united on this issue is -- the tension at the heart of citizens united on this issue is that there was broad language supporting disclosure, but there was talk of how burdensome pac requirements are and that they are not an adequate substitute for corporations that want to in the thai politics. not -- tensio -- they are adequate substitute for corporations that want to engage in politics. the good news from our perspective is that they have not been successful. as far as i know, all the district courts that addressed these cases did preliminary injunctive release. at some of these are still bubbling to the district courts and appellate courts. overall, the courts have looked at citizens united and seen it as a signal that unless the disclosure law is overly burdensome, not a proper -- a ppropriately taylor, it ought to be upheld. citizens united, one of the things it also says is that disclosure does not need to be limited to express advocacy, which is a vote for so and so, it does not have to be limited to the functional equivalent of express adv

those organizations are transparent in the way that the organizations making expenditures for citizens united were transparent. and just to illustrate this i guess one other chart that i threw in is another thing from public citizens showing the top 10 outside groups that spent money on the 2010 election cycle. and if you look -- according to their list, they say that only three of those top 10 groups actually disclosed to their funders. but it gets a little bit more complicated than that because if you look so american crossroads which is number two on the list was organized as a 527 so they were disclosing their contributors, but and then i guess the other thing i would say is that american crossroads was was expenditure committee with the sec and the speech now case which allison mentioned. that case held that independent expenditure pac's could not be held to source and amount contribution limits and that means where it's a federal pac they would be $5,000 contributions they are an unlimited contribution threshold they will get contributions of $1 million or $2 million. if you go down to

who drafted the 14th amendment wanted to make clear that everyone's who is born here is a united states citizen. in the 1890s, the supreme court specifically ruled that everyone who is born in the united states, whether parents are citizens or not, is a citizen of the united states. that is established law now for well over a century. now, i think it is reasonable to say we should amend the constitution to change that to say that those who are born to parents who are unlawful are not citizens. i can make the policy arguments, but i don't think we should punish children because of their parents' choices, but we can have that debate, but i don't think there's much of a debate in terms of the law that's been proposed here in arizona to say that the state won't recognize the citizen somebody whose parents were not lawfully here. state only the united states government gets to define who is a citizen. i don't think graham's statute can change it. it makes clear anyone born here is a citizen. want to change it? you have to amend the constitution. >> something important to us in the room here today is

campaign finance reform, citizens united caved -- the campaign finance reform took money away from the parties. it restricted how political parties and candidates could raise money. it didn't touch the interest groups. part of that is because the case of ugly versus belay another free-speech cases. in checking the ability of parties and candidates to get money, the money didn't disappear from process here they went to the wings. so it's fair for growth in its there for move on.org and there for the tea party express. and we have seen under the citizens united case large chunks of money coming in that disney would have to be disclosed. and so, the effect on members of the take a look what happened to lisa murkowski and robert bennett and mike castle on the republican side just to serve it is your first name. you don't want to antagonize these groups or you may not keep your seat that. democrats have a similar problem, but it was more pronounced than the republican side this last time. at the very discipline you factor in terms of the ability to tackle these issues and take to vote at th

about supporting child pornography it's about supporting a constitutional rights we are as united states citizens and having just been sworn in as united states citizen last year i'm defending a constitution that i believe in as attorney and workforce in the laws as a former prosecutor that's what we do we're here to force the laws now the law is the same for murder for rape for child pornography for marijuana and for narcotics so yes we're focused on target on child pornography because that's the crime of the day right now that we're in this computer age kick this changing with technology but the core the law is the law and they're trying to use ordinary citizens to circumvent the law just so they can get reelected and it's wrong. i agree david and i'm very concerned about this this whole trend it's of just not just this particular law that there's a lot of these gotcha things that get introduced just because it'll make a good ad in the next election cycle to take down an opponent and it's just it's wrong david thanks so much for being with us tonight anytime thank you for having me reship it su

then comes citizen united. i think the financial crisis was due to a lot of corporate corruption, a lot of the banking industry, and wall street, and there hasn't seemed to be anybody particular prosecuted for those things. it was never mentioned in the news media. and system united comes along and opens the door for more funding for the same people who put us in the position where we are today. so where is the democracy in this? where does the working guy have a say? i don't think that it is the unions or the teachers making $50,000 a year in wisconsin being attacked that caused the financial collapse. there was a lot of suffering going on in this country. how do you reform citizens united? host: thank you, billy. guest: there are many attempts being made to counter the a attempts of citizens united. now to even amend the constitution. whatever response we have, i think it is going to be a long slog to fight this. there is, at the supreme court level and in other court decisions, a propensity to defend liberty

[applause] our fourth speaker is the president of citizens united and citizens united production, a conservative grass-roots organization with five under thousand members and supporters nationwide. citizens united made history last year with their victory at the supreme court which reinstated first amendment rights for those previously barred from participating in the political process. this victory level the playing field to from the big spending liberals and unions and has been called one of the most important cases in u.s. history. they produce 17 politically acclaimed documentaries including "ronald reagan -- rendezvous with destiny" and "rediscovering god and ameritech," with newt gingrich, screened here last night. please welcome david. [applause] this morning, we will hear we will hear five-seven minutes of remarks from each of our panelists, and then move to questions. first i would like to welcome marilyn. >> hello. i'm here to talk to you about a topic he may not think about liberty and taxation. wait a second. that seems like an oxymoron, right? under current tax system, it is absolut

justice to to collect more information as the lawyers for the federal elections commission and citizens united case. with an arguable claim for recusal in that case you know they should gather more information to go so far the supreme court has been had not forthcoming in their responses i mean when we raise this they base that they put out a official court response that said thomas in school we went to separate federalist society dinners sponsored by the cokes and that school we had did not go to the koch retreat and that thomas just dropped by. but there are no federalist society events on record we have scoured their their websites we've called their offices washington post offices to koku to do there are there you know there were no federalist society events that we can tell and thomas was reimbursed for four days of accommodations and meals and palm springs if you just drop by and you know we've raised the question where were you the rest of the time either you got a free vacation from the federal or you were at three treated you're not being straight with the american public are we we ju

you think it's just a coincidence that only a few months after the supreme court's citizens united decision republicans are waging war against me unions across the country and the koch brothers and billionaires and wall street are funding both directly and indirectly a variety of politicians from scott walker in wisconsin to pretty much any anti-union republican the sticks its head up it's no coincidence in fact is the final part of a plan an act that way back in eighteen eighty six by the wealthiest people in our nation to undermine our democracy and put in place one party rule in america that are boils down to something called corporate personhood and it's the basis of book i wrote called an equal protection. our founders knew all too well the dangers of corporate power at the boston tea party was a protest against the world's largest trans national corporation of the time the british east india company and through the first century of our nation presidents legislators and the courts held today a healthy mistrust of corporate power was a good thing that was until just after the civil war

, nancy pelosi, harry reid, and the liberal media attack the citizens united -- attacked the citizensnited decision at every turn and viciously so. our important victory empowered voters by giving them additional information. that is what this was all about. in 2010 midterm elections, the results of getting more information or evidence -- were evident. the citizens united decision was a liberal incumbent's nightmare. no longer do the unions and the george soros'of the world control all of the media and message. so sweeping out the liberals in november, it was a huge victory. it came down and stand down from -- stemmed down from that citizens united decision. i do not think after a year of being attacked, anybody really understands what it was about. citizens united produced a film in 2007 called "hilary, the movie." [laughter] how many people in here have heard of it? exactly. >> people like michael moore and the left-wing controlled hollywood elite -- all these films attacking conservatives. that is the culture war we are in. we decided to take on michael moorea ad to provide conserv

your options are eight because the supreme court citizens united decision and our democracy over the big corporations or b because all our jobs going overseas or c. because of those lies is dying or d.d. all of the above so far seventy percent of you think it's all of the above still a time to let us know what you think you are going to tell our conduct and cast your vote the polls be open until tomorrow morning. crazy alert lifestyles of the rich and famous dogs of tibet mastiff was just sold to a chinese called baron for ten million won roughly one and a half million dollars and it's the dog named big splash the most expensive dog in the world apparently is tibet mastiffs are becoming the new status symbol for china's super wealthy so any minute we can expect the republican party here in the states to figure out a way to give this dog named big splash the world's wealthiest dog a massive tax break. coming up people who drop off their laptops the repair shop may find themselves caught by the police when you build a used computer.

the corrosive impact of money in politics and the whole how the political it's changed since citizens united and what can the average citizen do about this well it certainly does speak for the role of money in politics i mean you just look at a time first of all in terms of good public policy the right thing to do you don't cut back on pell grants when so many families today are desperately trying to get pick kids a college education you don't cut back on the head start program when we know that it is enormously successful in preventing kids from dropping out of school you don't cut back on e.p.a. environmental protection agency when the vast majority of the american people want to make sure that we're breathing clean air and the water we drink is safe. but because of the power money in congress the power of law abuse the large corporate interests to wield so much influence you know what you are seeing is congress certainly the republicans and too many democrats just looking at spending spending spending cuts and the debate is well do you call this that how much do you call it rather than sa

the campaign finance reform, citizens united case, the campaign finance took money away from the parties. restricted ha candidates could raise their money. it didn't take the interest groups, part of that is because the case of bulkeley versus some other free speech cases, but in shrinking the ability of the parties and candidates to get money, this money didn't disappear from the process. it went out to the wings so it's there with the club for growth and the move on.org and the tea party express and we have seen many now wonder the citizens united large chunks of money don't even have to be disclosed. and so the effect on members as you take a look at what happened to lisa murkowski and robert bennett and mike castle in their primaries on the republican side just to start with is your frozen. you don't want to antagonize these groups or you may not get your seat back. the democrats have a similar problem that was more pronounced on the republican side this last time. that's a very disciplined factor in terms of their ability to tackle these issues and take off the votes at this point a

the citizens united decision was a liberal incumbents's nightmare. no longer do the unions and the george soros'of the world control of zero of the media -- control all of the media and message. it was a huge victory. it came down and stand down from that ycitizens united decision. i do not think after a year of being attacked, anybody really understands what it was about. citizens united produced a film in 2007 called "hilary the movie." when we made the film, we went to the federal election commission because people like michael morore and the left-wing hollywood elite make films attacking conservatives day in and day out. that is the cultural war we are in. we decided to take on michael moore and provide conservative content through film. and went to the federal election commission and said that michael moore can do this, can we? they said no. we got into this back-and-forth about why. finally, they said "we are in charge. you are a political organization and know what you are doing. we will charge you." mccain-fine geingold is the ruling lot of f

washington and so the corporations have used their economic power to usurp democracy that's what citizens united case was all about and until we have a public form of financing we won't gain back our democracy we'll always have this back and forth where corporations will seize the moment through electing tools to various levels of government and then when they do their job they come in for their grand we ward which is more fund raising more effort and i'm sure they'll throw the senators from wisconsin that they will do everything they can to see to it that they'll survive the recalls that are coming out look when you have corporations able to buy the outcome you have government or private interest or your public financing you can have a government of public interest and it will set in the minute we have left i'm just curious your thoughts on p.j. crowley he was fired at the as the spokesperson for. secretary of state clinton for saying that bret bradley manning's situation is confinement circumstances not not that he's there or how he's being treated or ridiculous counterproductive and stupid or

corporations under citizen united so you run against first amendment.ike the virginia law where everything is disclosed. today you've got millions of dollars of attack ads and we don't know who's paying for them. in virginia we allow everybody to contribute. gaming corporation and everybody but you know who these and at least you can go to the voters and say look who's behind this person. these are independent ads coming into campaigns where the candidates don't control their own campaigns interest groups to. so i think it's gone away off the cliff at this point and i just think going back to a full disclosure is the best way to go. i have nothing else to add except a kind of feel like the genie's out of the bottle, is that what comes out a bottle? the genie is out of a bottle and it's hard to put back together again. how do we make our conversations more civil? eliminate half of cable television and the internet. it's just not going to happen so i agree with tom completely. making the parties stronger, give the parties and candidates more control of th

the final piece of the puzzle started with the supreme court's citizens united decision but armed these corporate radicals with the ability to dump millions of dollars in undisclosed money into our elections horrid in to prop up politicians on their own dime and inject these dummies into a political campaigns funded by corporate war chests it gave these radicals and political party that they've co-opted over the last thirty years the republican party the upper hand in our nation's elections as we all saw as november that advantage translated to big wins at the polls so the last leg of the stool the last thing standing in the way of these radicals from winning and forcing our government to sell off what little is left within our once great nation but one last thing stop enough for the public unions the main fundraisers to the democratic party the last vestiges of organized labor of people who are invested in and gala tarion and democratic america and not in a corporate partners this is the real reason for everything going on across the country from the budget cuts in washington to the bu

this thing altogether and it's it's going to be a tough one in a minute we have left given the citizens united decision given the power of big money here on both parties frankly is there anything that can be done other than just you know now this is that this is been passed this piece just letting it go on . this is hooly historic legislation and we're talking about expanding coverage for tens of millions of people making coverage more affordable for people providing subsidies for them placing ceilings on how much they have to pay out of pocket improving the quality of care this is enormously important and job one is to get this implemented as effectively as possible and concurrent with that as we got to make sure that these attacks on the affordable care act. very well said ron paul and thanks so much for greatness and keep up the great work with families it was great to have you republicans have always champion states rights well let's came out there not one progressive states like vermont in oregon create singles successful season single payer health care systems and the rest of the country

for this current supreme court because obviously there is this notion as specially after the citizens unitedruling that this is a. well a loving supreme court so do you think they're going to be taking that into account in their decision oh i think they're going to do their best to try to keep any kind of actual public opinion out of their decision making because as we know americans are are kind of wise to what's going on here in america right now and we want people to stand up for the rights of people like you know the workers at wal-mart who have been systematically discriminated against over the last decade and longer when it comes to hiring and firing and compensation decisions so the supreme court's really at odds with the broad broad spectrum of americans who want to be able to get together with their fellow americans and assert their rights in court do you think that this case would have gone to the supreme court have not been completely relentless did they not have the money to spend i mean this case is already eleven hears in the making court after court after court has actually ru

i think that what's really going to lead to the end of america art is things like citizens united i love how bakker baiter they don't talk about that at all they don't talk about the fact that corporations now have the right to fund politicians with unlimited amounts of money ok i think that that's what undermines our democracy and i think that's what will the bench will lead to the end of america but i love how they never bring that out they bring up the fact that they think health care providing little babies with health care is going to ruin the country i mean anybody who believes in these clowns or looseness of these clowns there is heartless individuals who don't really have their priorities straight. and you know i think you really hit it dead on when you talk about corporate america there because even with this health care legislation that was passed obviously it's not perfect there are a lot of people out there who are critique it but it just makes you wonder if anything that's going to get passed will ever really make a difference if we don't talk about corporate control in amer

war on women particularly poor women the corporations they got out rights in twenty ten in the citizens united case the u.s. supreme court near or image that dred scott ruling by saying that property is people that corporations have constitutional rights like the right to political free speech and frankly a new civil war has started between the rich and the rapidly disappearing middle class today we are seeing the largest gap between the rich and the poor in america nearly a century there are fifty two million people without health insurance forty million people dependent on food stamps survive and one in five american children live in poverty it corporations never been better thanks to their personally gamed the system and the financial times noted today they're on course to see bigger profits this year than any time since one nine hundred ninety three as warren buffett said the rich are winning the war i say it's time to turn the tide let's strip personhood from corporations and embrace common sense only people should be considered people. no more no more personhood for corporations it's it

know they're worried about they're worried about losing these big contributions especially after citizens united and you know i think it's there are a lot of pragmatic decisions being made i think it's up to the people to lead a movement that's really going to take account. ability that's really going to force accountability for the big banks and for wall street but at the same time obama and his justice department are the ones that have made a decision not to go after any of these it back at bangerz not to hold anybody accountable you know at least in the courts for causing this entire collapse yeah yeah well you know i think they're you know they're they're probably. not enough kind of political hacks on television i don't want to be i don't want to be one of them so i can't speculate as to as to what you know why the obama administration is making this is making i can't disagree with you and we really would like to see a lot more leadership from the administration on these issues because they are crucial and vital and. you know to boot i think that the majority of americans would agree that w

further deregulated that the landslide and sort of average out of the norm legal decision called citizens united last year which gave an even a higher role to big money in american politics and american politics runs on big money big money doesn't pay and support and donate to politicians in order to become smaller money so that's part of the problem with the american political system and the other part is that we america was a country that sort of stood stayed together historically with great unity on the glue that we all figured if we work hard we played by the rules we do better than our parents that they would do better than their parents and our kids would do better than us and as outward mobility has sort of collapsed in the united states where we went from being one of the most upwardly mobile countries to one of the least in the developing world once people in the united states have to stop kind of believing that their future can be better it becomes easy for them to be manipulated into thinking the way for them to be better off is to make someone else worse off and you get these nasty v

necessary to win the presidency of the united states with an enormous corporate spending thanks to citizens united and union membership steadily declining that other twenty percent shouldn't be too difficult for the republicans to pick up. you know our like sins should not be a partisan issue and the fact that they are shows just how deep the subversion of our of them of our democracy goes we need public funding of elections and we need it now that's the big picture for more information you can visit our website it's all part of dot com party dot com check out our you tube page youtube dot com slash the big picture archie you know forget democracy begins with you get out there get out can snag you know much cinema.

now they're often the source of blame for liberals on many contentious issues things like the citizens united ruling and of course their annual billionaire's conference but they claim that they're just the victims of leftwing rage so have they become the go to scapegoats or do they represent all that's wrong with this country we're going to host a debate on the issue and how about a closer look at the g.o.p. presidential front runners donald trump is in the spotlight for his latest political viewpoints as a burger and one little known candidate is already making anti muslim remarks that are frankly really embarrassing and to a society so are these guys just crazy or is this exactly what their base wants to hear we'll have details on all that and much more tonight's show but first onto our top story. and tonight president obama is set to give a speech at the national defense university regarding this war in libya and i have to explain to the american people why you didn't consult congress or address us until this point and often tell us what it means for the u.s. to step back and for nato to t

politicians that they didn't that they don't like for over one hundred twenty years culminating in the citizens united decision before the supreme court in two thousand. and with the help of republicans like scott walker all around the country these corporations are now claiming the absolute right to buy and sell politicians and to write laws the benefit them and screw you and me scott walker may be the face of this effort today but the first culprit was that rather obscure court reporter jacey bankrupt ava's who with the stroke of his quill undid the intentions of our founders and set the nation down the road to corporatocracy please help us spread the truth about what really happened in that fateful court case in one thousand nine hundred six and put an end to corporate personhood and bus stop this ruthless takeover of our democracy that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered as our web sites of thom hartmann dot com and r.t. dot com entire show is available for free podcast on i tunes also check out our youtube page you tube back slushie does big picture archie

united states. japan's prime minister now, naoto kan urged citizens to unite against the country's worst crisis. he did that today in a televised address to the nation. this after the crisis level was raised to five on the international scale of seven. reactors lost cooling abilities and plant pritors have been working the keep fuel from overheating and releasing dangerous levels of radiation. the prime minister's comments come on the one-week anniversary that began on the northeast coast. many people across japan stopped for a moment of silence to honor those that were killed and those still missing. maybe thousands. the death toll from the magnitude quake has topped 6,400 people. >>> engineers are still scrambling to prevent a deadly release of radiation. water cannons were used tie try cool the fuel storage pool at reactor number three. robert bazell has the latest from tokyo. >> reporter: the struggle to contain the heat from the radiation as the crippled nuclear power plants continue. there is no indication it is coming to an end. officials sent out the fire trucks. the ones that shoot wate

a very strong statement with respect to first amendment rights, and we talked last year about citizens united case, so there is another one where the supreme court, that was much more closely divided that the supreme court is going to be very robust to protect our first amendment rights. >> this will be the last of i think it very compellingly written conclusion to the chief justice's opinion. speeches powerful. can stirred people to action, move into tears of joy and sorrow and as it did here inflict great pain. on the facts before us we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. as a nation we have chosen a different course to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate. .. let me turn to the other first amendment case that the court has already heard argument in involving the state's california was very concerned about violent video games children were playing some in which the child actually play the role of torturing someone, reaping someone in the video game itself. the ninth circuit held that law which you need your parents' permi

because of last year's decision in the major campaign finance case, the now infamous or famous citizens united to see if the court would take an expansive view of corporations' privacy rights as it did corporations' free speech rights. but that didn't happen. this was a narrow decision under the freedom of information act. >> woodruff: all right. marcia coyle, thank you very much. >> my pleasure, judy. >> brown: finally tonight, another in our series on poets and poetry. we profile charles wright, author of more than 20 books of verse, and winner of numerous honors, including the pulitzer prize and national book award. his most recent collection is titled "outtakes." >> my name is charles wright. i live in charlottesville, virginia. i've lived here for 27 years now. i write poems. that's my reason for living. most of my poems start with me looking out e window or sitting in the backyard as the dusk comes down. and what that sort of translates into into my thinking at the moment. i used to think the power of words was inexhaustible. and how we set the world is how it was and how it would be. i

i would say this, lastly, i believe the supreme court got it was wrong with the citizens united case. i would like to see -- i know c- span has done its share to discuss it but i do not think it should be something that should be forgotten and it is something that should be brought about and discussed again on c-span. host: mike tweets in -- if you want to send a sweet, twitter.com/c-spanwj -- "the new york times" editorial. randy, independent, in shreveport, louisiana. the supreme court decided the funeral protests from the westboro baptist church are free speech. what do you think? caller: i agree with the first amendment. they got it all wrong. they need to be in washington standing in front of the white house and the congress and waive those banners at them. they are the ones who sent the troops over there. and you got a communist in the white house and other communist in congress and everything. that is where the problem is right there. i thought they would send the troops home when obama got in the white house. look at what is it is doing. he is a puppet -- a communist puppet, a