mean and why is there so much secrecy surrounding the agreement tom tucker research director for public citizen joined me earlier to explain the details of the leaked document take a listen. what president obama campaigned on a few years ago was a pledge to make sure that u.s. trade agreements would never allow multinational companies to challenge public interest regulations like environmental protection laws or consumer protection laws but what this latest text reveals is that president obama has adopted wholesale the president bush agenda of allowing these kind of corporations to attack u.s. laws so this is of grave concern to consumer groups and environmental groups and really all americans who believe that the u.s. court system is adequate and the company should need to go to an outsourced tribunals to attack laws we wanted to read actually the campaign promise that obama made. directly from his campaign sheet it says will not negotiate bilateral trade agreements that stop the government from protecting the environment food safety or the health of its citizens give greater rights to foreign

citizens trade campaign website is is is the text that shows that foreign corporations will have unprecedented rights in the united states to be able to challenge our environmental protections our public health regulations the land use zoning laws before foreign tribune ols they can bypass domestic courts where as u.s. corporations and citizens have to go through u.s. domestic courts foreign corporations operating in the united states could go to these foreign tribunal's and debate demand cash compensation from u.s. taxpayers if they don't like those laws we've seen this movie before the chapter eleven of nafta we spent twenty five years getting dolphin safe tuna laws actual laws that you couldn't do long line long net dragging operations for tuna and a mexican corporation sued the united states and won under nafta you know under the chapter of title eleven more it's how is this and you know the coffin industry was sued by a canadian company and the. whole world what is it m b t a would you know the. placement for what there is a lawsuit around that how is this different from the well in what this is is actually an extension of that same that same system with nafta that was the first

there are other organizations, the consumer federation of america, public citizen, the unions there asked me, americans for financial reform, a whole variety of other organizations that are also engaged in the debate trying to protect the public. that's how better markets came about and how they are funded currently. we expect more broadbase funding over time once we become better known. >> let's get one last call in here. bob, a democrat, from new york. hi. >> caller: hi. >> hi, bob. >> caller: dennis, love the overview on wall street. it's been enlightening. >> thank you. >> caller: my question is, on the news this morning it said that wall street has contributed $30 million to romney and 4 some billion to obama. that means that obama must be doing something right and makes me very leary to even think about being a republican when everything you've stated, they gave that much money to him. they must be trying to do something. and i thank you. >> well, bob, it is true that one of the biggest problems is a campaign finance system that, frankly, has just become a disconnected with reality

as a planner, urban designer, and public citizen interested for our city, there is no reason to not approve this and every reason to approve them. the existing uses for a buffer against a double decker embarcadero freeway and are totally appropriate for today's gracious embarcadero boulevard, and i would caution the board against redesigning and micromanaging every tiny detail of the project. you have one of the world's best designers, one of the world's best landscape architects, and a developer with a terrific record all -- our waterfront. please do not try to redesign this project from the dais. that is a formula for failure. your highly qualified planning department and port staff have very competently presented the case today. the height limits, for instance, were set by the very public planning process. i will not repeat what they have said, but it is time to move on. please approve the zoning and general plan amendments and other findings and pass on to the full board with the unanimous vote of this committee today. commissioner torres: -- chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> i tha

when we come back, lori wallach of public citizen on president obama's siccative trade deal, how it empowers corporations -- secretive trade deal, how it empowers corporations. stay with us. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break] >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we turn now to a controversial trade pact between the u.s. and eight pacific nations that until now has remained largely secret. it's called the trans pacific partnership or tpp. a chapter from the draft agreement leaked wednesday outlines how it would allow foreign corporations operating in the u.s. to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. the body would have the power to override u.s. law and in -- an issue penalties for failure to comply with its ruling. the agreement is being negotiated by u.s. trade representative ron kirk, appointed by president obama. but the newly revealed terms contradict promises obama made while running for president in 2008. when campaign document read in part -- >> earlier leaks from the draft trans pacific purchase ag

a leaked document realized by public citizen outlines a portion of the deal the president is negotiatinge pack. a pack that seeks to open trade among countries bordering the pacific association. joining me now director of global trade wash which first released the leaked document. thank you for your time tonight. >> eliot: thank >> thank you. >> eliot: first explain to us what is in this document and why would it violate an essential pledge that he made in 2008. >> so the document is one of 26 chapters of what has been branded as a trade agreement. but as this particular chapter leaking shows trade is really the least of it. in fact, the agreement would require the u.s. as well as other countries involved to, quote, conform their domestic laws, regulation and procedures to all the attached chapters. only two of the 26 have to do with trade. the one that leaked sets up limitations for the u.s. government not to regulate companies operating here and subject disputes between the u.s. government and foreign investors to international tribunals. the foreign investors would not have to meet ou

i filed a declaration, but the best news alan gave me is that i think that public citizen, the group that nader started, the litigation group years ago, might be interested in this case. sure enough, they were. >> i want to tell you something else about the taepz that's very interesting. you can think of your next question while i'm doing this. i was surprised to find theoretically all of the private information that's removed from the tapes. anything that's personal to the family, his conversations with private friend like beebee on something totally unrelated to government. scott -- you and i might discuss one day that i think abuse of government power would be included, and that would have to be amongst the release, so if it's beebee and nixon discussing where they're going to go out on beebee's yacht, that's one thing. if they're talking about taking money, that is another thing. that would fall under the abuse of power. anyway, what i have discovered is that the process in getting this released, not everything got removed. particularly with his wife and with his daughters. now,

fifty two page document outlining new provisions in the trade deal was leaked and uncovered by public citizen revealing the president stands behind giving foreign transnational corporations unprecedented power to abuse american workers to pollute our environment and to destabilize our markets under this agreement american companies would have to comply with american law and labor banking and environmental regulations that's american companies but foreign companies operating on u.s. soil wouldn't have to instead they can appeal to an international tribunal that has the power to overturn laws passed by our congress and levy trade sanctions on the united states now there was if this trade deal passed that america's laws would no longer apply to foreign business tycoons setting up shop in the united states. so is this yet another blow to american sovereignty and the power of we the people to protect our commons and our workers i think so from our president to members of congress on both sides of the aisle everyone is addicted to senseless free trade and now we're headed toward a nation less world

historical societies, i would file a declaration, but the best news allen gave me is that i think that public citizen, the group that nader started, the litigation group years ago, my be interested in this case and sure enough, they were. long story short, the case was filed, a petition was filed, went to a very conservative judge in the district of columb columbia, lambbreth. he looked at it and released the papers, so we now have this nixon grand jury stuff and it's fascinating. it's more insight into the man. and so these are -- you know, there's very little in many regards if you actually want to dig for it, it surprises me that after all these years we really don't know what's on the tapes. i want to tell you something else about the tapes that's very interesting. you can think of your next question while i'm doing this. i was surprised to find -- theoretically all of the private information is removed from the tapes. anything that's personal to the family, his conversations with private friend like b.b. on something totally unrelated to government. scott, you and i might discuss one day i think

public citizens applaud the move, but say the site doesn't go far enough, richard, what's wrong with the site? >> we think our complaints serious, and we don't think it was right or necessary to public the list of complaints. complaints without facts on to the internet. let's wait until the entire process is finished before we list what bank is involved. this will be terrible for reputation. we don't think it's right to do. >> what about the reputational hit here. dodd frank requires the complaints to be public. >> it's charming he talking about reputation risk, because for the banking industry you can fall off the floor. what's important here is the name of the bank. as a con sosumer makes a choice you have to know what banks suffered the most complaints. >> less than one-half of one percent -- we're in favor of consumers having the right to complain, but the jury should not decide the verdict before the trial begins. >> what's at stake for the big banks? >> what's the stake is we serve over 200 million customers. a website will say that a bank had 2,000 kplaucomplaints but we 200,00

to give a sense of how bad this is, public citizen who is a watchdog had this to say. tribunals that we would exposed to that would be staffed by private sector lawyers that would rotate between acting as judges and advocates suing the government. that means that the foreign corporation can come in here based on this dale and say i don't like your labor laws. i don't want to pay this much and i want to pull pollute. it's good that i can go to a tribunal packed with guys i paid off, they can make the ruling and you lost u.s. sovereignty and it's the least progressive trade deals you could possibly have all in favor of multi national corporations. why, why would a guy who promised to be progressive do this kind of deal? why does every president we have do this kind of deal whether they're republican or democrat. let's bring in somebody who can talk about this. zach carter wrote about this at "huffington post"." we showed you the clip. the guy promised he would not do trade deals like this. he was incredibly specific. why did he go in the office and do it. >> they're cond

consumer advocates are applauding the new site, the consumer watchdog group public citizen has criticizeddit card companies for misleading practices. >> among the problems are marketing materials that would suggest that fees are at a certain level, but in the muggers that hide in the small print on page 42 of this particular contract, surprise you with something that you simply hadn't considered. >> no surprise, credit card companies and banking groups are pushing back, accusing the newly formed consumer bureau of publishing data that has not been vetted for accuracy. >> as the bureau vets or verifies the information, it's basically rumor and gossip. and we don't really want consumers making important financial decisions based on rumor and gossip. >> reporter: the american banker's association says there are 320 million american credit card accounts and they say complaints tally only about 100th president. billing complaints are the most common complaint with. and as for verification, the consumer bureau, they do confirm that a credit card company that a person making a complaint currentl

guest: i am a lobbyist, a lobbyist for public citizen, and quite frankly i lobbied for lobbyist reform. my objective has been to rain in lobbyist. i am not the least bit worried about citizens united rendering lobbyists less relevant. i'm working on legislation to prohibit lobbyists from fund- raising and participating in the financial aspects of campaigns. i would like to see lobbyists taken out of the process as well as corporations and labor unions. i want to emphasize this. we need to have a reasonable system of limits on money in politics and full disclosure, and the whole purpose of that kind of campaign finance regime is to lessen the potential it corrupting influence of those who have interests pending before government. that as corporations. that is lobbyists. that is labor unions. we ought to remove them as much as possible from financing elections. host: tennessee. nick, republican line. caller: a half-truth is as much as a full life. you mentioned nothing about the ford foundation, etc. $100 billion runs liberals in the country. the liberals have the mainstream media overal

there's 150 come 240 million public citizen's even lower, 110 million. so, why the white diversions, why do they claim the responding to billion and why are the groups providing low-cost indications to people here claim that it is so much cheaper? because the report is deeply flawed. it's not accurate. when they look at the cost of drugs, they look at the very atypically expensive drugs even the drugs that are brand new they are not copycat drugs the spoke of, the new molecular entity of the totally different totally new drugs. those are expensive and rare most drugs do not fall in that category. they also get a small subcategory of the drugs, the few for which no money in its development. that is also rare because the government will invest money in the research and university and when the researchers find something that is worth defending only then do they stay in as a partner and start controlling the additional research needed for the approval of etc. so, a few drugs, relatively few don't have that initial support so they look at that small segment a

we feel that alone should have the eir reissued at have public comment for citizens. the notices for the june 28 hearing went up on june 6. what happened to 30 days for citizen input into the project? it seems like a precedent is being said that says if a project sponsor loses a hearing, all they have to do this to the city to get what they want. i do not think that a good precedent. this project is way to impact fall to circumvent the process. if it truly shows the church cannot be reused, we welcome the opportunity to sit down with the project sponsor and agree to a building that will be an asset to our neighborhood. since 2007, this group has negotiated for major projects in our neighborhood where both the project sponsor and the neighbors made concessions to come up with something acceptable to everybody. please go through the process. don't circumvent this process. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i lived about 300 feet within the site. i received a call from the city attorney on may 23. myself and some other members of the neighborhood association we

government, or now state governments are struggling to meet these obligations that they made to these public citizens depend on that money. now we have a fox business network's charles payne to go over all this with us. >> hi, patti ann. this is from the pew center. the number they came up with, 1.3 trillion. i read a report that the obligations could be 300 million to $4 trillion. patti ann: my gosh. >> we're in a very dire situation. patti ann: it varies a lot from state to state. some doing better than others. illinois has only 45% of the money it needs to pay these obligations. they say you should have 80%. how bad is it? >> to your point, according to the pew center only wisconsin has 80%. that is how bad it is. you mentioned illinois. this is one of the states with extraordinarily high unemployment. to combat that they are raising taxes. when you raise taxes your most innovative citizens leave. your most successful businesses leave. they make the problem worse. hear is the problem. a lot of public employees were made the promises. they have what is known as defined plan. they were promised cert

the consumer watchdog group, public citizen, has criticized companies for misleading practices. >> amongrketing materials that would suggest fees are at a certain level. but small print on page 42 of this particular contract surprise you with something you simply haven't considered. >> no surprise, credit card companies and banking groups are pushing back accusing the newly formed consumer bureau of publishing data that has not been vetted for accuracy. >> that's the bureau vets or verifies the information, it's basically rumor and gossip. and we don't really want consumers making important financial decisions based on rumor and gossip. >> the american bankers association says there are 320 million credit card accounts. they say complaints tally only about 100 of 1%. now, billing disputes are the most common type of complaint followed by gripes about interest rates and accounts being closed. as for the verification issue, the consumer bureau, they say they confirm with the credit card company that a person making a complaint has had or currently has a credit card. even still though, wolf

the consumer group public citizen wanted the fda to reject it. worried it could increase the risk of heart damage. could quitting smoking one day be as easy as getting a single shot? researchers at the cornell medical college successfully tested a vaccine in mice to treat nicotine addiction. the study showed levels of the chemical in the brain reduced by 85% after vaccination. the nba draft happening tonight at the rock in newark, new jersey. anthony davis the man with the uni-brow is the consensus choice to be selected first by the hornets. soledad. >> i am so happy for him and so happy for new orleans and it was so interesting to hear magic johnson tell him surround yourself with friends and people that will support you. >> and trademarked the uni-brow. >> major decisions out of washington, d.c. today. the supreme court will rule on president obama's health care law and they could let the law stand and strike it down as a whole and rule on specific provisions like the individual mandate and just across the street at the capital the house is exp

reprieve that we have from the possibility of it getting worse and also the idea that the public hates citizens united and things like the disclose act are in place, attempts to get the regulators to do their jobs are in place, there's a sense more good could be done legislatively and through the regulatory branches than through the supreme court. it might not be happy talk, it may be the truth. >> dahlia, you have been doing great work explaining this stuff, but also putting it in a broader political context in a way i think more clearly than anybody else writing about this. thanks for being with us. i appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. >> and there was that one other case at the supreme court today. something about papers and arizona and please. we've got details on that one coming up, including we'll be talking with a sheriff in arizona who's an important part of what happens next in arizona on that case. >> and michigan, the state of michigan has gone crazy in a whole new really personal way and it's all about you. great! tyler here will show you everything. check out our new mobile app.

public. concerned citizens say vulgar teens are a big problem downtown and are making life, pardon my languageasant. >> it's intimidating to my customers. i think it's a good thing they're doing something to try to curb it. >> don't think it will solve the problem but i think it will make them understand what is acceptable behavior. >> i'm sympathetic to that. residents probably have a point. groups cursing teens can't be good for business. it's upsetting to hear what some kids scream on the street. who wants to hear that? don't police officers have better things to be doing than writing tickets for f-bombs? >> these are things that are quality of life issues, community police issues, that a lot of people don't want to see downtown. >> quality of life is important both on the streets of your community and in the halls of your workplace. that's why i'm proud cnn is squeaky clean. >> at no point running a gym? >> no, running a gym, you need a workout or something? jesus [ bleep ] christ, i come on the news for two seconds, and you want -- >> all right -- >> every time i do an interview, a guy wa

i think he has done enormous things as a citizen i think public citizen has had major impacts. in fact can i send him a box of these books. is that i'm going to give in to my friends. and i said, thank you very much. so i saw him three weeks ago. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> well, on the first point i cannot help you. i'm a second point, the answer is a constitutional amendment. you cannot get around these rulings. you do anything to declare it unconstitutional. you can possibly do something that had genuine public financing. i sorry that purport to be a constitutional amendment. the federal government may limit -- may limit the federal, state and local government may limit what they spend on political campaign. that is the key. now, when you do a constitutional amendment it goes to the states commit three quarters of the states has to do it. many people will resist another reach a critical point and i will very quickly. this happened the 19th century. in the 19th century, corrupt state legislators that were controlled by railroad, banks and oil companies send corrupt senators who

sends the message to anyone who thoughts that the burt might walk back its decision on citizened united facee face of public anger, but that simply isn't going to happen at least with the court's current political ,akeup. >> what is interesting about this is its court made the decision without hearing any arguments in the case. >> that's right, its it simply struck down an earlier ruling by montana's supreme court upholding the law. t d that sends the message a anyone who thought that the court might walk back its decision on citizen's united in the face of public anger, but that simply isn't going to happen, at least with the court's current political makeup. >> thank you, nancy. the justices also ruled it's unconstitutional for states to make life sentences mandatory for children like when, for example, a murder occurs during the commission of a robbery. the court said children under 18 can be sentenced to life but it must be decided by a judge or a jury. automatic mandatory life sentences, the justices said, amount to cruel and unusual punishment. the justices still have to rule on one more major issue--

particularly if you're overly obedient to the pope and the clergy you can't be independent citizen required in the american public so this is a way of saying, hey, we're being good citizens and participating in the war effort even as we are still overtly practicing our catholicism. more of these kinds of expressions of dual identities. fast forward after the civil war a little bit. this is a famous st. patrick's day parade, again in new york city, in 1871. where else have we seen a picture of st. patrick's day before? anyone remember? >> the nast cartoon. >> the day we celebrate. a lot different, right? that was a picture of a drunken riot. this is the opposite. it is orderly, calm, peaceful. and that's not a coincidence. the irish are very conscious in the public displays as anyone involved and sending a message about who they are and the details here are pretty interesting. up front have you a guy on a horse that doesn't seem to be going particularly well, but he has the plumed hat and so forth. does anybody recognize that uniform? i wouldn't necessarily expect it. but it's a knights of columbus uniform, cathol

citizens' advisory committee. commissioner campos: is there any member of the public would like to comment on item number six? seeing none, public comment is closed. this is an action item. can we take the same boat? commissioner avalos? commissioner avalos: thank you. yes, malrena -- marlena presented herself to the committee. this is recommended be approved. commissioner campos: thank you. we thank her for her willingness to serve. same house, call? please call item no. 7. >> item #7 -- select center lane bus rapid transit when rice said boarding/a single meridian and limited left turns as the local preferred alternative for the van ness avenue project and approve the draft van ness ave report. commissioner campos: we want to thank the staff of the mta for working very hard on this item. is really great to see that. there is a resolution that has been reached on this issue. is a very important project. commissioner avalos? commissioner avalos: thank you. i want to thank those at plans and programs for their patience. between meetings, they were briefed, and we're moving this forward with greater community i

i think he has done enormous things as a citizen i think public citizen has had major impacts. in fact can i send him a box of these books. is that i'm going to give in to my friends. and i said, thank you very much. so i saw him three weeks ago. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> well, on the first point i cannot help you. i'm a second point, the answer is a constitutional amendment. you cannot get around these rulings. you do anything to declare it unconstitutional. you can possibly do something that had genuine public financing. i sorry that purport to be a constitutional amendment. the federal government may limit -- may limit the federal, state and local government may limit what they spend on political campaign. that is the key. now, when you do a constitutional amendment it goes to the states commit three quarters of the states has to do it. many people will resist another reach a critical point and i will very quickly. this happened the 19th century. in the 19th century, corrupt state legislators that were controlled by railroad, banks and oil companies send corrupt senators who