it was signed by president obama. >> senator feingold's bill laid the groundwork last fall to send 100 u.s. military advisers to central africa to help armed forces for uganda, the democratic republic of congo, south sudan, and the central after african republic to hunt down joseph kony and the lra. >> i met with some special advisories that are united states personnel in uganda and central african republic and sudan and uganda adding a great bit of ability to troops over there. >> we are currently working with the defense department, the state department and other agencies to try and figure out what we can do and how we can be more effective and we're going to continue to work with the state department and others in an effort to provide and focus on this issue. >> it may take time. you have to understand in an area where he is thought to be was a densely vegetative, hard to know roads and telephone poles. there are no lights at night. he separated himself from a lot of his followers. >> they're getting very, very close. >> president obama and our u.s. soldiers in the field aren't the

in june 2001, our former colleague, senator russ feingold of wisconsin, by predecessor's chairman ofsecond and most rathering on racial profiling. i was there, there was bipartisan agreement about the need to end racial profiling. then came 9 /11. the national trauma that followed civil liberties came face-to-face with national security. arab-americans, american muslims, south asian-americans faced national origin and religious profiling. one example, the special r registration program targeted arab visitors requiring them to file with the i.n.s. or face deportation. there were serious doubts if it would help us combat terrorism. terrorism experts have since concluded that special registration wasted homeland security resources and, in fact, alienated patriotic arab-americans and american muslims. more than 80,000 people registered under that program, more than 13,000 were placed in deportation proceedings. even today many innocent arabs and plums face deportation because of special registration. how many terrorists were identified by the special registration program? none. next wedn

russ feingold said no. they wanted him to do it. it's interesting comparison.it might be because they haven't found a champion identify to believe everybody. >> bret: charles? >> the democrats are deciding right now is whether they want this to be a single issue campaign, or whether they want it to be a judgment about the governor, broader judgment. they ran against him in the priest election cycle and loss. and less steady on the union issue. the unions aren't backing him. so it would be more of a do you like walker, the governorship. choice between the candidates. it would be like rerun of the election two years ago. if it isn't him it would be single issue campaign. if it is single issue campaign, it's natural. i don't think it's a make row chasm of the president -- microcosm of the presidential election. i don't think it will tell us anything. but it's national in the sense that other states will look at this to decide are the governors going to risk curtailing power of the union after wisconsin if the governor is recalled. >> bret: you don't think it will

. >> senator feingold's bill, the recovery act was passed in 2010 was a real break through. >> at a time when there's so much partisanship, this is an issue we had bipartisan.support and it passed relatively easy, signed by president obama. >> senator feingold's bill laid the groundwork for president obama's decision last fall to send 100 u.s. military advisers to central africa to help arm forces for uganda, the democratic republic of congress co, south sudan and the central african public to hunt down the lra. >> on my trip two weeks ago, i met with some of the special advisers that are united states personnel nrnl u dan da advising the republic of sudan and uganda. they're adding a great bit of ability to the troops over there. we are currently working with the defense department and state department, other agencies to try to figure out what we can do and how we can be more effective and we're going to continue to work with the state department and others in an effort to provide the focus on this issue. >> it may take time. you have to understand the area where he is thought to be is

, because i want to listen quickly, because he makes a powerful point, and of course, mccain/feingold moment to feingold actually in march in radio and saying exactly this thing. >> the trouble with this issue, and i think that john would agree with this is that people have gotten so down about it that they think it has always been this way. well, it has never been this way since 1907 and never been the case to buy toothpaste or detergent or a gallon of gas that the next day that money can be used on a candidate. that is brand new. >> and john of course there is john mccain saying that now the consumption items impact politics in a way that you don't mean it to. >> and i think that though there are powerful evidence to suggest that corporations are not going to get away with this forever with consumers. we have seen incredible examples over the course of the past few weeks in part led by heroic groups like color of change.org and lets loose consumers at corporations spending political dollars doing things that go against the interests of consumer consumers. >> you have optimism about

>> it depends whether or not herb coal or russ feingold get in on the democrats. if you have somebody like that running against scott walker. >> bill: big name in wisconsin. >> that could be the difference. right now they have got a bunch of people. i don't know their names except for the mayor of milwaukee tom barrett. >> bill: put up a big name against him he might be out. >> oh yeah. >> who wins in wisconsin tomorrow night? >> i think romney wins. i would say maybe by less than the consensus polling shows only because santorum has out performed his polls in a couple of over states at this point. good grounds for romney because there are fewer evangelicals and as you see in some of the polling he is pulling some of those tea party and evangelicals toward him because of this coalescing of leaders around him and maybe folks getting a glimpse of second-term obama and not liking what they see. >> bill: consensus here that romney gets it and wins maryland. washington, d.c. because santorum is not even on the ballot there. then basically the republic party shifts into

former senator russ feingold will be here. also, dave barry will join us onset. >>> up next, the top stories in the politico playbook. but first, here's bill karins with your green is universal forecast. >> ok. >> well done. >> thanks. >> well done. >>> good morning, everyone. if you weren't paying attention and watching tv over the weekend, you missed these amazing publics of all of these tornadoes that were in the midwest. incredible stuff. in some cases, there were two tornadoes on the ground at the same time. the one that caused the most problems was the woodward, oklahoma, tornado. went through a trailer park. five fatalities with that tornado. and actually, out of the 126 tornadoes, that was the only deadly one that we had. most of the tornadoes, thankly, were out over rural areas. this is the map that shows where the tornadoes took place. mostly kansas, nebraska, and parts of oklahoma. five fatalities. 126 tornadoes. it's amazing it wasn't worse. >>> as far as today, thunderstorms, louisiana, down along the tex coastlin

>> it depends whether or not herb coal or russ feingold get in on the democrats. if you have somebody like that running against scott walker. >> bill: big name in wisconsin. >> that could be the difference. right now they have got a bunch of people. i don't know their names except for the mayor of milwaukee tom barrett. >> bill: put up a big name against him he might be out. >> oh yeah. >> who wins in wisconsin tomorrow night? >> i think romney wins. i would say maybe by less than the consensus polling shows only because santorum has out performed his polls in a couple of over states at this point. good grounds for romney because there are fewer evangelicals and as you see in some of the polling he is pulling some of those tea party and evangelicals toward him because of this coalescing of leaders around him and maybe folks getting a glimpse of second-term obama and not liking what they see. >> bill: consensus here that romney gets it and wins maryland. washington, d.c. because santorum is not even on the ballot there. then basically the republic party shifts into

in the mccain-feingold law, those were struck down. >> it takes 30-60 days in the law.it takes that same principle and expands its for an entire year. i would think that members of the house and senate would like that. that they could not have their name mentioned without these restrictions for the entire election. that is half a house term and 1/6 of a senate term. i am think i am out of time. -- i think i am out of time. >> why couldn't it be both years? why couldn't it be both times? i do not see any ruling principle here. >> under existing law, have primaries and hal -- been held where superpacs ran ads and the donors were not disclosed until after the primary? is this a problem and how does the bill deal with it? p>> it was a big problem during the election. the south carolina and florida primaries were run and over with before we had the first disclosures of the superpacs and who their commanders were. that was because the way the law currently -- disclosures of the úpsuperpacs and who they are thunder's were -- funders were. there was no disclosure of the donors

bush who when he was presented with the mccain/feingold finance bill said i believe this bill to be unconstitutional, violation of the principle of free speech in the first amendment, you about i will sign it anyway. that's matter for the supreme court to decide. seemingly overlooking that little thing of his oath of office protecting and defending the constitution which earlier presidents would have taken as their duty to compel them to veto the bill. so close with one example of today's news. one more example of how this ought to be got right. either yesterday or some this morning the department of transportation issued new guidelines calling on the industry to disable gps devices in cars so that it -- only operate at f the car was park order the side of the road and the transmission is in park. they are worried about auto safety, people being distracted by gps devices even though many are voice activated. right now it is a guideline. today's guidelines are tomorrow's mandates. now any counter intuitive economist such as the people that work on the floor down from here will tell you this will prob

of comment about specifics that are in my legislation that i filed, and i want to thank senator feingold, the leader in the last congress on this issue. i was a co-sponsor. and when he didn't return to the united states senate i took up this issue, and i'm proud that we have 12 co-sponsors. i think as a result of today's hearing we're got to get more members who are interested in joining us. the language of the bill is pretty clear. it defines racial profiles. straightforward way. it makes it clear that in the random investigations law enforcement cannot use racial profiles. simple as that. you can't pull someone over because they look a certain way. you have to have solid police evidence as to what you're doing in an investigation. that's the essence of what we're trying to accomplish. we make it clear that the best way to do this is through training. and we want all law enforcement trained. it's not only the police officer. it's all of those who act under the authority of our police need to be trained as to the proper procedures. that's spelled out in our legislation. we also believe t

last year, i filed the end racial profiling act, and as you pointed out, carrying on from senator feingold's efforts on behalf of this legislation. i thank you for your leadership as co-sponsor. we have 12 members of the senate that have co-sponsored the legislation, including majority leader, harry reid, as co-sponsor. racial profiling is un-american. it's against the values of our nation. it's contrary to the 14th amendment of the constitution equal protection of the laws. it's counterproductive in keeping us safe. it's wasting valuable resources that we have. and it has no place in modern law enforcement. we need a national lockers and that's why i encourage the committee to report 1670 to the floor. it prohibits use of racial profiling, that is using race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in selecting which individual is to be subject to a spontaneous investigation activity, such as a traffic stop, such as interviews, such as frisks, et cetera. it applies to all levels of government. it requires mandatory training data collection by local and state law enforcement, and a way of ma

chairman is right in that there is as part of the bipartisan campaign reform act also known as mccain-feingold of 2002, the fcc is charted with requiring broadcasters to keep political files with this information. including by the way if a campaign committee calls the station inquiring about ads, not just if there was a buy event. that's important, but broadcasters are coming to us not campaigns. saying the proposed rules might be unduly burdensome to them. it's important for us to ask what is the cost benefit analysis here and to weigh that very carefully and deliberately. and, also, maybe generally speaking as policymakers, we should be asking if we want transparency in campaign spending shouldn't we turn the microscope around off of tv broadcasters and look at the campaigns or the political committees that are spending the money, and where is that money going? that way you have a more comprehensive view. i'm not advocating that one way or the other, but i'm saying the goal, the fcc is not necessarily the best agency to do that, especially when we're just focusing on the narrow issue of tv b

nominated the two candidates who were most known for saying we want a red or blue nation or mccain feingold, lieberman. i think the american people if they want that, will have leaders that will do that. >> yes, sir. >> hey, david. david jackson. >> walter alluded to citizen journalism earlier, but no one really picked up on it. so let me ask you specifically. how would you describe citizen journalism and do you think there should be a place for it at "the washington post" or at "the new yorker" for example? >> well, if you think about it, think about the arab spring. how did we learn about and witness what was going on? citizen journalists. people on their, with their smart phones, with cell phones, cameras, on twitter and facebook. hurricane katrina. you can go down events where tsunami, were not present. marcus doesn't have reporters there. and his paper. is relying on information from citizens. are they journalists? no. and i would make the argument at the risk of being called an elitist, which i would plead guilty to, that a journalist is, it should think of themselves as professionals

the february 22, epa -- this goes way back and i can remember sitting up here back when senator feingold actually introduced the restoration act. we have had this before us many, many times. it is -- it turned out that this would be the most damaging thing in terms of a, the farm bureau and customers like that. so subsequently i was disappointed when we sent the guidance to omb to the final review. how does the administration's policy as our articulated in the new documents it was overturned by the supreme court. that was only yesterday, however it's been rejected twice before in your opponent's case and in the swag case. and my interest here of course is to do something about this final rule in terms of the -- how the water is going to be treated. >> the sak case goes under projects. those who are recipient of on epa action allowed to hear it in court. we will of course be abiding by that decision. they did not speak unanimously as part of the main decision as to the issue, the continuing issues of which wet lands and water lands in this country are -- that is resulting in back of prote

out two thousand and ten that's what delivered scott walker in office that's what resulted in russ feingold leaving office and in my home state of wisconsin you see that the democrats been handed a huge opportunity with a massive uprising wisconsin with this recall which the democratic party didn't even want they tried to cancel it in august and the grassroots said no we're moving ahead with this thing and yet they had they appear to be on the verge of nominating candidates the grassroots don't support are very unhappy with so what i'm most concerned about is that without having independent power without having an independent voice going into this election like the green party's jill stein like independent candidates running for office like movement politics yeah movement politics at the ballot box then we will end up being at the mercy of democratic party operators and a political party that is essentially bankrolled by wall street as well and yet you know lyndon johnson didn't run as a civil rights pro and f.d.r. i didn't run as the new deal press both of them ran on very very different f

ok corner feingold you mean i mean i mean the thing is is that you know this is a democratic process in play and i mean you know how agree with you on i mean if you can win then why don't you go out and win and it looks like the brotherhood has a very good chance of doing and i agree with the bill are mean then you can have an enormous amount of responsibility on your hands ok if you fix the economy to create jobs i mean in that way it is a gamble. it's true it's true that it is a gamble on the korean brotherhood i mean egypt egypt economy is in dire straits there are. forty percent egyptians live on the central dollars a day there's a million and a half babies are born in egypt every year. there's a greater who have answers to these problems and forget those on the other hand if it's if you or i or the brotherhood and we've waited eight decades to seize power i don't think we would like the chance that the way ok on i mean it's ok if our i think is going a bit strong here we are talking about an election our way absolutely and one wish should never lose sight of the fact that the mu

is that a message that feingold isn't going away if anything is increasing as it does so to the i called ations of police force out of sync despite popular anger levelled at austerity it's only recently there's been an apparent holiday and a response by police especially since the new conservative government took charge late last year in favor of protesters felt the strong arm of the lord valencia what started as peaceful demonstration was met with batons tear gas and rubber bullets i sure never said if we can't allow young men to be hit in the face while handcuffed because the only thing that slaps in the face here is democracy and then the anger within parliament foods on deaf ears at the top my daughter but of to the majority of meetings in february we're not legal it means that there is no reason to institute proceedings against any policeman because he took it on but this is no isolated event over in barcelona after last month's general strike there yet more clashes with police arrested made that very few became public knowledge and as prime minister in spain there is an obsession t

holy mccain and feingold, batman. you weren't even paying attention. >> i wasn't.as pissed off at our producer. >>> should what you say on-line cost you jail time? should a comment that tars puts you behind bars? a bill passed in the house and the senate too in arizona making it illegal to put on-line the intent to terrify, harass, threat, annoy or offend. translation, no more anonymously slamming my workout routines, patti ann. i know it is you. anyway, free speech advocates says it violates the first amendment. stunned by the backlash, law i can makers say they tend to clarify that what is banned is unwanted communications. that so the bill doesn't interfere with the free speech rights. it sounds a little like interfering. explains the bill's author, chad -- his name is chad campbell. quote, the intent was to go after stalkers with one on one conversations that are threatening. if there are some concerns there is time to fit it. but you have to trash the bill to fix it. for more we go live to our stock and correspondent, world's creepiest ice cream man. >> that i

1990 case called boston where the supreme court upholds limitations and then congress writes mccain feingold, enacted into law and the supreme court upholds it in 2003 and seven years later you come along and with the flick of a pen and declare it unconstitutional. there is no precedent that is safe. if ideologically the court disagrees with it. that is a real problem. >> ok, folks. it is your turn. there's a microphone here. get in line and come to the microphone. anybody else who would like to -- get in line and go through this as rapidly as possible. as many questions as we can. keep your questions as brief as you can and the senator will give brief answers. >> i see they have books in their hands. [talking over each other] >> introduce yourself. >> i am a volunteer here. my question is i am a member of norway. i have been to washington four times including two weeks ago before senator lieberman and the government and the government affairs committee where we have a bill before congress saying no budget know pay. i don't know if you are familiar with that but i wonder what you think of no

in june 2001 come our former colleague senator russ feingold of the, in my predecessors have another set to me how the senate second most recent hearing on racial profiling. i was there. there is bipartisan agreement about the need to end racial profiling. then came 9/11. and the national trauma that followed, several liberties came face-to-face with national security. arab-americans, american muslims, south asian americans face national origin and religious profiling. to take one example, special registration program targeted arab and muslim visitors, requiring to promptly register with the ins or face deportation. at the time to call for the program to be terminated. there were serious doubts it would help us in any way to combat terrorism. terrorism experts have since concluded that special registration wasted homeland security resources and in fact alienated patriotic arab-americans and american muslims. more than 80,000 people registered under that program. more than 13,000 placed in deportation proceedings could even today many innocent muslims face deportation because of speci

s case called austin where the supreme court upholds limitations and then congress writes mccain-feingold enacted into law and the supreme court upholds it in 2003 and then seven years later you come along with a flick of a pen to declare unconstitutional there is no precedent that says if ideologically the court disagrees with it. that is a problem. >> there's a microphone here since you have to get in line and come to the microphone. anybody else that would like to can get in line and we will try to go through as rapidly as possible to get as many questions as we can. please come keep your questions as brief as you can and the senator can get brief answers but he is the senator. >> i like the first two questions already because i see they have books in their hands to estimate can you introduce yourself? >> i am a volunteer and my question is all i am a member of no labels and i've been to washington four times including two weeks ago for senator lieberman in the government and the government affairs committee where we have a bill before congress of a low-budget, no pay. i don't know if

in june 2001, our former colleague, senator russ feingold of wisconsin, by predecessor's chairman of the committee held the second and most rathering on racial profiling. i was there, there was bipartisan agreement about the need to end racial profiling. then came 9 /11. the national trauma that followed civil liberties came face-to-face with national security. arab-americans, american muslims, south asian-americans faced national origin and religious profiling. one example, the special r registration program targeted arab visitors requiring them to file with the i.n.s. or face deportation. there were serious doubts if it would help us combat terrorism. terrorism experts have since concluded that special registration wasted homeland security resources and, in fact, alienated patriotic arab-americans and american muslims. more than 80,000 people registered under that program, more than 13,000 were placed in deportation proceedings. even today many innocent arabs and plums face deportation because of special registration. how many terrorists were identified by the special registration

in june, 2001, senator russ feingold of wisconsin, and predecessors held the second and most recent hearing on racial profiling. i was there. there was bipartisan agreement on the need to end bipartisan -- racial profiling. then came 9/11. civil liberties came face-to- face with national security. air the americans, american muslims, south -- arab- americans, american muslims, south asian americans faced racial profiling. one example required them to properly register with the ims or face deportation. terrorist experts have since concluded that special registration wasted homeland security resources and, in fact, alienated patriotic american muslims and arab- americans. 80,000 people registered. 13,000 were place in deportation proceedings. even today, many innocent face deportation. how many terrorists were identified? none. next wednesday, the supreme court will hear a challenge to arizona's controversial immigration law. it is one example of extending state and federal measures that under the guise of combating illegal immigration have subjected hispanic americans to an increase in racia

. >> you work closely with former senator russ feingold.nd demanding change that even the supreme court will some day feel that demand for change. >> i don't know about these five justices. i have no doubt that the citizens united decision will not stand the test of time. it is just a completely flawed and wrong decision. >> the justices have a light for corporations to spend this money. again, if you look at history it doesn't start or happen in washington. it happens out in the country and the pressure forces washington to respond and i agree with that point. i agree with senator feingold who was a terrific leader of a campaign finance issue when he was in the senate. i think people are going to demand change and the opportunity is going to be there. these are hard fights and we are going to have to fight for change. but i think it's going to come. >> if you want to join the fight, go to democracy 21. democracy 21.org and join fred wertheimer and become part of fred's army for campaign finance reform. >> good to see you. >> thank for all

russ feingold, once again, his new book is called "while america sleeps, wake-up call for the post 9/for joining us live. real pleasure. all right. good news, the state department says the war on terror is over. really? what the heck makes them say that? we have details. and you paid your taxes but should you do -- what should you do with your refund? vera gibbons has the best bets for $500, $1,000 or $1500 refunds. she's coming up next. she's turning right into studio e. good morning, vera. follow the wings. i love cash back. withhe bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. 1% ca back everywhere, every time. 2% on grocers. 3% on gas. automacally. no hoops to jump through. no annual e. that's 1% back on... wow! 2% on my homemade lasagn 3% back on [ friends ] road trip!!!!!!!!!!!! [ male announcer ] get 1-2-3 percent cash back. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ >> time now for your news by the numbers. first $3,000. that's how much the average american household income has dropped since president obama took office. that's

in 2010, wisconsin took a dramatic political turn, outsting russ feingold in favor of ron johnson. who just endorsed mitt romney for president and sent fiscal conservatives to the scott walker governor mansion. so wisconsin's labor fight has garnered so much national attention, even trumping the presidential primary there, in part because wisconsin's issues are a microcosm for a nationwide trend and scott walker knows it. >> what's at stake in this election is fundamentally about courage. and lord help fuss we fail. lord help us if we fail. if we were to fail this sets aside any courageous act of american politic forces at least a decade, if not a generation. >> the wisconsin recall election on june 5th will be the state's first and only the thirder in the nation. now here is the big deal. i am a huge fan of labor rights. but i am not such a supporter of recall elections in pure theory, a recall spells broken democracy. either the sitting leader is pursuing a course of action not advertised during his campaign or a vast overreach of power taking place in either scenario the democra

our guests include former senator russ feingold, co-chair of the obama campaign, joining us at this desk us on facebook. up next, "melissa harris-perry." happy easter. ohhh my head, ohhh. [ speaking in japanese ] yeah, do you have anything for a headache... like excedrin, ohhh, bayer aspirin... ohh, no no no. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. no, bayer advanced aspirin, this is made for pain. [ male announcer ] bayer advanced aspirin has microparticles, enters the bloodstream fast, and safely rushes extra strength relief to the sight of your tough pain. feel better? yeah...thanks for the tip! [ male announcer ] for fast powerful pain relief, use bayer advanced aspirin. guys. come here, come here. [ telephone ringing ] i'm calling my old dealership. [ man ] may ford. hi, yeah. do you guys have any crossovers that offer better highway fuel economy than the chevy equinox? no, sorry, sir. we don't. oh, well, that's too bad. [ man ] kyle, is that you? [ laughs ] [ man ] still here, kyle. [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today. right now, very well qualified lessees

guest: it's actually becoming less transparent because the recent spade of laws, even mccain-feingoldade it a little less transparent, the money that was going and then this citizens united has allowed a situation where so as long as the i.r.s. deems this super pacs as only promoting social welfare and not political campaigns which, of course, is a joke but so far the i.r.s. is going that route, that means their donors cannot be disclosed. i mean, like i said at the outset, there is someone who gave $10 million to karl rove's super pac. and we don't know who it is. host: before we let you go, one last piece of video we want to share with you from last night, snl, "saturday night live" using presidential politics as part of its opening skit. [video clip] >> thanks for meeting me here, ok? now that you're out of the race, i wanted to tell you in person that you ran a great campaign. >> thanks, mitt! and congratulations on the nomination. it was hard fought. >> when can i get you two? >> well, we're celebrating for my friend so i'll have a chocolate milk! >> and i'll have a napkin. that