but she's sitting down with award winning editorial columnist and cartoonist ted rall ted thank you so much for meeting up with us today thanks for having me let's get right into it right now you're on a tour for your new book which is called the anti-american manifesto clearly that name is bound to tick off some of the political establishment here in the u.s. for our viewers give them a little bit of a sneak peek into the main message of what it's all about it's a call to arms it is addressing the fact that neither the democrats nor the republicans are able or willing to address the biggest problems facing the united states today which are the economy the environment health care and the wars and now you have to ask yourself as an american do you want to tolerate the system do you want to tolerate a system that is unresponsive and not going to go anywhere or do you want to change it the anti-american manifesto is not anti-american it's anti the american government or more specifically this american government we can do better and that's what we want to that's what i want to do now you'

ted rall ted thank you so much for meeting up with us today thanks for having me let's get right into it right now you're on a tour for your new book which is called the anti-american manifesto clearly that name is bound to tick off some of the political establishment here in the u.s. for our viewers give them a little bit of a sneak peek into the main message of what it's all about it's a call to arms it is addressing the fact that neither the democrats nor the republicans are able or willing to address the biggest problems facing the united states today which are the economy the environment health care and the wars and now you have to ask yourself as an american do you want to tolerate the system do you want to tolerate a system that is unresponsive and not going to go anywhere or do you want to change it the anti-american manifesto is not anti-american it's anti the american government or more specifically this american government we can do better and that's what we want to do what i want to do now you're a big critic of america's wars and occupations both in iraq and afghanistan a call to arms really seems like you know an aggressive way to respond to the aggression that the u.s. government is involved in the reason i oppose this particular regime is because it is so in aggressively violent. as the rest of the world knows the united states is always involved in some kind of war of aggression it rarely goes spends an entire year without invading some for some foreign country and that's only part of the story i mean there's the overall economic system that the united states provoked presides over that is incredibly violent and unjust so i'm talking about taking on this monolith this violent horrible disgusting system that is is brutal and is willing to do anything you're going up against them you can't fight these guys with one arm tied behind your your back. probably going to lose anyway but you you have to you have to be serious let me follow up on that we have the united states really liking to criticize other countries and really try to get involved one way or another how come if all the things that you say are true we're not hearing more voices of criticism from across the globe well anti-american ism is rampant throughout the world obviously and not just in the muslim world and much of it is justified unfortunately due to u.s. foreign policy and you know in terms of other countries let's face it you know if you're the president of random republic somewhere in central asia for instance are you really going to challenge or criticize the united states government which is the sole remaining hyper power in the world the largest exporter of arms and possesses the large a bigger military presence than the next ten countries combined no i don't think so the rest everyone's afraid of us because we're a bunch of bullies would you say that u.s. military presence across the world is basically the number one priority of american foreign policy well it's certainly the number one. priority of us federal spending fifty four percent of us federal tax dollars go into the military nineteen percent is just the paying off the interest on old wars that are over and we're not fighting anymore so what the united states is all about is about invading other countries and in and exerting foreign military power whether it's through military bases of which that nobody even knows how many there are if you call the pentagon they can't tell you if it's seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred or thousand bases they don't know how much or how many people they have under arms somewhere between two and three point five million directly or indirectly using foreign using mercenaries i mean it's a crazy monolithic roman style empire and nobody talks about it including anywhere in the world or here it's not allowed but when you bring up a quote from your book the u.s. . terry would not and could not have killed a million plus iraqis if the people who live in the united states had done anything they could to stop do you really think that's the case what could the people have done considering the fact that many americans were opposing and still are opposing these wars and still nothing is being done for the most part the american left has been dormant or nonexistent since the early one nine hundred seventy s. and the big exception was the opposition to the war against iraq and two thousand and three hundreds of thousands of americans marched in the streets there was vocal opposition even members of congress were against it and yet in the end nothing changed and you have to ask yourself what could have gone differently i mean let's say of the million plus americans who marched in the streets during the winter of two thousand and two to two thousand and three had been more aggressive let's say they had refused to go home let's say they had clashed with the police let's say violence had broken out i think that then the congress would have been required would have been forced to take pause because they knew that this was an unjustified war of aggression it was an optional war it wasn't about defending american interests it wasn't about protecting the united states and therefore it didn't necessarily have to happen you say in your book that the story of the united states is drawing to a clause close and you call the u.s. is the army empire and especially in the light of the recent elections when we see republicans again enjoying their power it really feels like a circle republican democrats republicans democrats where will that change come from that you talk about well it's certainly not going to come within the existing system what we're seeing now that you just referred to this flip flopping the two parties are so close together on the overall ideological framework from left to right that there there's not enough differentiation so big swathes of the population are not don't feel represented at all which is why are voters. turnout is among the lowest in the industrialized world the change is not going to come from the d.'s and the r.'s the democrats and the republicans and the fact that people are constantly just voting against the party in power is a symptom of that people are frustrated the message they're sending is not right now we support the republicans nor was it in two thousand and eight we support the democrats the message is we hate them both so we're voting no the story of the united states government as the twentieth century invading bullying imperialist stick economic and political empire that is coming to a close it is unhealthy for us and it's obviously terrible for the world but you also claimed that it's very likely that the united states could become a fascist state and this is clearly a statement that is bound to get many people outraged what do you see these traits well i don't think that we're going to see you know brown shirts and nazis stepping in the streets but we have elements of proto fascism in american culture today whether you look at the vague nature of the politics of the tea party where you know vagueness political vagueness and a lack of ideological specificity is a trait of extreme right wing politics the cultural back basis of so many americans particularly in the middle of the country and in the south is centered around extreme forms of right wing christian fundamentalism and that religious force is its very nativist racist bigoted zina phobic and anti-feminist anti-gay it's a very it's very narrow minded all of these attributes not to mention the major attribute of being so militaristic is are elements that we saw in traditional fascism in germany and italy where there are civilian rule. that military is is not worshiped you know we don't have all this rhetoric about the heroes have fallen another fallen hero this is not to say that we should disrespect the military but americans especially since nine eleven have come to fetish eyes the military you get a lot of criticism especially from channels like fox news they say you're not a patriot because you are against this widespread military presence of the united states. are you not a patriot i am more of a patriot than those people ever will be i care about the american people more than i care about about the american government the american government is supposed to be here to serve the american people and because of its leading role in the world also the people of the world we have a tremendous responsibility because of our political and economic power and we are we are just completely acting irresponsibly and insanely you know i want to ask you one of the latest articles of yours is called obama was bad from the start realistically which his promises has he kept in the in these last two years has he kept well that's well that's to be a short short answer well he did promise to escalate the war against afghanistan and he has he did try for health care sort of but health care reform turned out to be really creating a system of even worse than what we have now he hasn't kept many promises i mean he promised he would close guantanamo that he would end torture that he would end extraordinary renditions that he would ramp down and pull out of iraq all he did was rename the troops who are in iraq from combat troops to something else assistance force as he is he's a very cynical guy i want to ask you about following up on afghanistan do you think it could become the graveyard of the u.s. is an empire like many people are predicting since there's not really an end in sight we know the pentagon has come up with twenty fourteen as the timeline but not a deadline what does that mean decades more i thought two thousand and eleven was supposed to be the deadline and now it's two thousand and fourteen and who knows how long this goes on i mean there are so many threats to america's continued status in the world that it's hard to know exactly what will bring it to an end all we know is that it's unsustainable you know it's kind of the united states it's kind of like a why. the man who uses drugs and drinks and commits crimes and beats people up and everyone hates him all you know is it's going to come to a bad end you really can't be sure how but something bad is going to happen you know you've cited the enormous amounts of money that is that is being spent on the military and u.s. defense if there's so much money available how come it's not being spent to create jobs for millions of jobless people and why do we continue hearing that the country is in a recovery yet it's really crazy you know i mean if you took the one point four trillion dollars that were initially spent just to bail out the banks and you would redistributed that money among all the millions of americans who were who were having problems paying their mortgages and who had just lost their jobs in the previous year or two i remember doing the math and back of the envelope determining that each one would receive a check for three hundred fifty thousand dollars the reason is because the u.s. government does not serve the people and it's not afraid of the people and even though it knows that its actions are shortsighted and will ultimately lead to its demise they cannot help themselves they cannot stop themselves ted rall thank you very much for your time and thank you. seventy six hours of intense fighting. six thousand dead. several kilometers long. and now as a result one person who cares. we are surrounded by graham ridge everywhere but also there are. on this beach which of course is very most appropriate signification a symbol of everything that's wrong with our goddamn government allowing not only garbage but to accumulate where. i want to go. to new battle is going on. will be history be protected. return to tara what julian cooper story on our team. will be. bringing you the latest in science scams technology from around the world . we don't go to church hubbard. is easy to. eat. bellows an old borat caesar as twenty six people for allegedly plotting terror at times for the christmas period the suspects it's all radical islamic that what it said to how clings to international terrorist organization is unchecked limits to. the russian president says he recognizes the country's the perfecti

ted rall ted thank you so much for meeting up with us today thanks for having me let's get right into it right now you're on a tour for your new book which is called the anti-american manifesto clearly that name is bound to tick off some of the political establishment here in the u.s. for our viewers give them a little bit of a sneak peek into the main message of what it's all about it's a call to arms it is addressing the fact that neither the democrats nor the republicans are able or willing to address the biggest problems facing the united states today which are the economy the environment health care and the wars and now you have to ask yourself as an american do you want to tolerate the system do you want to tolerate a system that is unresponsive and not going to go anywhere or do you want to change it the anti-american manifesto is not anti-american it's anti the american government or more specifically american government we can do better and that's what we want to that's what i want to do now you're a big critic of america's wars and occupations both in iraq and afghanistan a call to arms really seems like you know an aggressive way to respond to the aggression that the u.s. government is involved in the reason i oppose this particular regime is because it is so in aggressively violent. as the rest of the world knows. the united states is always involved in some kind of war of aggression it rarely goes spends an entire year without invading some for some foreign country and that's only part of the story i mean there's the overall economic system that the united states provoked presides over that is incredibly violent and unjust so i'm talking about taking on this monolith this violent horrible disgusting system that is is brutal and is willing to do anything you're going up against them you can't fight these guys with one arm tied behind your back you're probably going to lose anyway but you you have to you have to be serious would you say that u.s. military presence across the world is basically the number one priority of american foreign policy well it's certainly the number one. priority of us federal spending fifty four percent of u.s. federal tax dollars go into the military nineteen percent is just paying off the interest on old wars that are over and we're not fighting anymore so what the united states is all about is about invading other countries and in and exerting foreign military power whether it's through military bases of which that nobody even knows how many there are if you call the pentagon they can't tell you if it's seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred or a thousand bases they don't know how much or how many people they have under arms somewhere between two and three point five million directly or indirectly using foreign using mercenaries i mean it's a crazy monolithic roman style empire and nobody talks about it including anywhere in the world or here it's not allowed you say in your book that the story of the united states is drawing to a clause close and you call the us is army empire and especially in the light of the recent elections when we see republicans again enjoying their power it really feels like a circle of republican democrats republicans democrats where will that change come from that you talk about well it's certainly not going to come within the existing system. what we're seeing now that you just referred to this flip flopping the two parties are so close together on the overall ideological framework from left to right that they're there's not enough differentiation so big swaths of the population are not don't feel represented at all which is why our voter turnout is among the lowest in the industrialized world in the changes not going to come from the d.'s and the r.'s the democrats and the republicans and the fact that people are constantly just voting against the party in power is a symptom of that people are frustrated the message they're sending is not right now we support the republicans nor was it in two thousand and eight we support the democrats the message is we hate them both so we're voting no the story of the united states government as the twentieth century invading bullying imperialistic economic and political empire that is coming to a close it is unhealthy for us and it's obviously terrible for the world but you also claimed that it's very likely that the united states could become a fascist state and this is clearly a statement that is bound to get many people outraged what do you see these traits well i don't think that we're going to see you know brown shirts and nazis stepping in the streets but we have elements of proto fascism in american culture today whether you look at the vague nature of the politics of the tea party where you know vagueness political vagueness and a lack of ideological specificity is a trait of extreme right wing politics the cultural back basis of so many americans particularly in the middle of the country and in the south is centered around extreme forms of right wing christian fundamentalism in it that religious force is is very nativist racist bigoted zina phobic and. minister anti-gay it's a very it's very narrow minded all of these attributes not to mention the the major attribute of being so militaristic is are elements that we saw in traditional fascism in germany and italy where there are civilian rule that military is is not worshiped you know we don't have all this rhetoric about the heroes have fallen another fallen hero this is not to say that we should disrespect the military but americans have especially since nine eleven have come to fetish eyes the military now i want to ask you one of the latest articles of yours is called obama was bad from the start. realistically which of his promises has he kept in the in these last two years has he kept well that's well that's to be a short short answer well he did promise to escalate the war against afghanistan and he has he did try for health care sort of but health care reform turned out to be really creating a system of teevan worse than what we have now he hasn't kept many promises i mean he promised he would close guantanamo that he would end torture that he would end extraordinary renditions that he would ramp down and pull out of iraq all he did was rename the troops who were in iraq from combat troops to something else assistance force as he is he's a very cynical guy i want to ask you about following up on afghanistan do you think it could become the graveyard of the u.s. is an empire like many people are predicting since there's not really an end in sight we know the pentagon has come up with twenty fourteen as the timeline but not a deadline what does that mean decades more i thought two thousand and eleven was supposed to be the deadline and now it's two thousand and fourteen and who knows how long this goes on i mean there are so many threats to america's continued status in the world that it's hard to know exactly what will bring it to an end all we know is that it's unsustainable you know it's kind of the united states is kind of like a wild man who uses drugs and drinks and commits crimes and beats people up and everyone hates him all you know is he's going to come to a bad end you really can't be sure how but something bad is going to happen ted rall thank you very much for your tennis thank you i. wish it was that so much for you to be sitting on. mark let's play the blame game and where to go from here the u.s. led drive to find a final peace settlement among the palestinians and israelis. lay close a team has beamed into the homes coming where rich academic life gives birth to innovative ideas. now largely goes to the area which together with boosting industrial development. offers to make a journey into russia's history. and to enjoy a person vivid culture life. welcome to the pair and regions russia go so far she. well for. bringing you the latest in science and technology from the realms of russian. we've got the future covered. seventy six hours of intense fighting. six thousand desert of beach front several kilometers long. and now there is only one person who cares . if we are surrounded by graham ridge everywhere but also there are. on this beach which of course is where most appropriate signification a symbol of ev