welcome to the capital account i'm laurin this here. welcome back to conversations of a great minds tonight i'm speaking with n.s.a. whistleblowers kirk we and thomas drake two men who were involved in exposing the n.s.a.'s illegal surveillance program known as the trail blazer project let's get back to it. thomas you were you were pointing out that there were illegal dimensions to this program that were unnecessary what were they why how did they come about and why were they on this is in short to my horror i discovered that it is a bandit a twenty three year legal regime called the foreign intelligence surveillance act they completely bypass from the dropped it overboard a and act it was passed in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight largely because of the massive abuse even in the sixty's and seventy's against americans in violation of the constitution so i discovered to my horror. that is satan was now it is entirely a vehicle that i did not recognize this is post nine eleven with the excuse of nine eleven found out that this pro

good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm laurin leicester here in washington d.c. these are your headlines on this tuesday august fourteenth two thousand and twelve let's go back in time remember the threats reported about what would happen if wall street wasn't bailed out. the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day another couple thousand the second day and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in america if we voted no. that was years ago but it's hard to forget is the legacy is still with us too big to fail banks extended to take down the economy while taxpayers are expected to shoulder the losses they rack up a higher than expected tab as with the auto bailouts holdouts car companies really well getting a slap on the hand for messing up i could go on but we'll talk about all of this with former tarp cop neil barofsky who is out with a new book bailout and while we're on it bloomberg reports russell wason board senior the c.e.o. of the bankrupt firm peregrine financial group was indicted on thirty one counts of making

good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm laurin lister here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for tuesday august seventh two thousand and twelve j.p. morgan says in a court filing pm subpoena of the bank may be too burdensome so will j.p. morgan get its way and get out of it well it looks like they could be off the hook for accusations of silver manipulation this is amid a financial times story reporting u.s. regulators are increasingly likely to drop their investigation of silver manipulation after four years failing to find enough evidence to pursue the case now i should mention one key regulator don't protest this report but we'll find out what chris how thinks he's co-founder and treasurer of the gold antitrust action committee plus it's been fodder for many a tale i'm talking about this. this they say it was a few secrets. are still very worried so. i'm referring to questions about the true state of the u.s. is gold reserves will reportedly the federal government is auditing the gold stored at the new york that at least so are those who've been ca

of the capitol and now i'm laurin lister. in screw and news in case it wasn't fitting enough the republicans are hosting their glitzy convention in tampa a city with the nation's highest rate of unemployment and almost us also gave the stage today to a politician who should be in prison as b.b.c. investigative journalist greg palast reports congressman tim griffin who addressed the convention today is also guilty of election fraud in two thousand and seven griffin resigned from george w. bush's justice department after allegations surfaced that he along with karl rove and mitt romney's current adviser matt rhoades engaged in a gene and illegal tactic used to kick voters off the rolls so how exactly has griffin of voided prosecution for these crimes and not only that made it all the way up. speaking in front of the r. and c. this afternoon let's ask the man who's been all over the story right from the beginning greg palast investigative journalist with the b.b.c. in the guardian and author of the upcoming book billionaires and

i'm laurin the sphere. is screwed news tropical storm isaac grazed the coast of florida yesterday hammering tampa with everywhere and rains and i winds put in a damper on the republicans two thousand and twelve republican convention but undeterred republicans gathered this afternoon to declare an official start to their convention and kick off a week long and strata ganz oval bob i eighty rich guy free market promotion and bashing government working people and poor people. already seen glimpses of what republicans will offer for their vision of america over the next few days there is of course the official republican platform which supports a federal ban on same sex marriage a reinstatement of don't ask don't tell and a call for more on constitutional anti immigration laws will be on the social issues a parade of republican speakers this week in tampa will trumpet their economic vision of america it's a vision that will argue for more austerity more spending cuts in government it's a vision that will argue

welcome to the capital account i'm laurin. welcome back to our special wednesday edition of conversations in the great minds with lamar waller author and historian has extensive and groundbreaking research has been featured in hundreds of newspapers and was the subject of the discovery channel special conspiracy files j.f.k. assassination he's the author of several books including his newest full of bombshells watergate the hidden history nixon the mafia and the cia let's get back to this lamar. first of all just just to recap. the the the watergate burglary was nixon was looking for this ninety page what you published in the book this this dossier that was compiled of his collaboration's with the cia and the mafia to kill castro that would have shown his affiliation with the mafia and the fact that they had been bribing him ever since i want to say it could have shown that and by the way the dossier didn't just cover nixon it started when nixon was vice president ended with that attempt to kill fidel castro in chile in decemb

good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm laurin lister here in washington these are your headlines for monday august sixth two thousand and twelve knight capital is set to get a four hundred million dollar lifeline from investors to stay afloat after its trading debacle last week caused by a technical glitch reportedly nearly wiped out the company seemingly just like this . sixty second. gone in sixty seconds more like gone in sixty nanoseconds in this day of high frequency trading so what purpose does this kind of speed serve and is there anything keeping a knight capital disaster from happening again will out commodity trading veteran and former nymex board member and president david greenberg also look at where regulators are with high frequency trading as a new study meanwhile comes out questioning the true risk of the s.e.c. revolving door we're not convinced by that study but let's see what our guests think plus it's been one year since this standard and poor's credit rating agency tonight has downgraded america's aaa credit rating for the first time in u.s. history. get in t

these issues about how and why and what needs to change so that there is some sense of justice right laurin thanks for that update that's coming up next on the capital account with laura lister but that is going to do it for the news for this hour for more on the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america our web site r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter liz wall we'll be right back here and a half hour see that. news today once again. these are the images are girls in seeing from the streets of canada. joint operations room today. let's. stop and look at the current a bit it's unemployment the national debt bailing governments ask yourself does it really matter who wins with billions created daily you can gamble with your money or turn it into a solid gold brick.

welcome to the capital account i'm laurin mr. what about your special edition of conversations of grapevines with neil barofsky it was the former special united states treasury department inspector general charged with overseeing the seven hundred billion dollars tarp bailout bill is also the author of the critically acclaimed book bailout and inside account of how washington abandons main street all rescuing wall street neil reed joins me now from our new york studios deal welcome back. my i don't pretend to be a scholar of the great depression but my recollection and please correct me if i have any of these details wrong or wrong is that at the time back in the in the early thirty's when the great depression happened most people had five year balloon mortgages that there was so much speculation going on in the twenty's people were just rolling these things over there was a huge land explosion that had gone on land values started in florida back in one hundred twenty six that bubble popped in twenty eight and that one of the one

and laurin the stuff for tonight's capital account. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lister here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday august sixteenth two thousand and twelve new home construction in the u.s. fell in july that's according to the commerce department data this is unexpectedly they media reports another reminder of weakness in the housing market despite recent signs of recovery it's not unexpected if you talk to barry ritholtz though who has been out there saying the housing market still has a long way to go we'll hear from him why plus from ghost inventory to zombies we'll talk about the often overlooked underbelly of u.s. housing which is haunting it's we're covering and we're going to forecast for when the foreclosure machinery will be kraken back to life and we all remember this. or simply do not know where the money is or why the accounts of not been reconciled today. it seems like junk or signed by just get away with it the new york times deal book is reporting the crimina

i'm laurin. what about big picture rubble on our panel tonight as c robinson deputy director of the paul revere project and contributor to human events the blaze in the national review it called williams attorney and progressive strategist and austin peterson director of production for freedom works so let's get back to it the republican effort to rig the november election has got a couple of setbacks here on thursday a federal judge said that the texas law the texas voter suppression id law was on its face voter suppression you know basically. this is a very weird law and expired gun license from another state was enough to get you in devote but a social security card or a student i.d. was not i mean this is i mean can you imagine sitting around going ok what's going to be legal id well what the republicans have gone is only out so any of that this is this is just nuts and how the texans say they're going to take this is supreme court we'll see where this is but isn't this more isn't this just v

i would like to thank cheryl, laurin, cynthia for leading all the panel today.d all of our panelists who have helped teach us more about what is going on regarding health in our communities, the obesity issue in our schools, and some of the health disparities. as we wrap today, i want to say in beit thank you to all of you that have come out. we appreciate your attendance. we help you learn something and that as you go from here, you are able to speak to your colleagues, your families, your communities about some of the topics raised today. before we close, i would like to thank our responses. the american beverage association, hbo. online we have the office of minority health. we encourage you to go to the root. we will have a number of these panels actually broadcast on the root. sis and will be airing the sometime this summer. we also what -- c-span will be airing this sometime this summer. this is an area of focus for us. an area we are very passionate about. we are very clear on the importance of this issue and how it impacts our community. we hope to do yo