that actually a majority a two thirds of small business owners are really upset with the citizens united ruling that americans are just sick and tired of money ruling politics and really ruling their lives in this decision on the anniversary tomorrow notice in south carolina with their primary goal and that's the anniversary of citizens united well i'm curious about that so you mention of course that mitt romney and newt gingrich have been complaining about citizens united and the influence of outside money john mccain has even said his little piece about it why the republican side and we you know suddenly they have a dog in its fight and they're unhappy about it because they finally have seen how it actually works you know mitt romney and newt gingrich is actually have actually been the victims are they or are they trying to play into where public opinion is starting to happen. well you know if you followed newt gingrich is very surly he's he's angry all the time i mean he's made his bones in this campaign basically attacking the media writes if you dare to ask him a question he just immediate

but luckily for montana their supreme court disagreed they argued the supreme court ruled in favor of citizens united only because the d.o.j. failed to make the case the government had a compelling interest in the meeting speech but they being the montana supreme court ruled the while the d.o.j. could not make their case the state of montana could stay argued they had a compelling interest in limiting direct corporate political expenditures for four reasons one a small population to low costs of elections in the state three large out of state interest in the state like mining companies and lastly judicial independence and the court also ruled that corporations which bought the suit such as the american tradition partnership quote act as conduits for anonymous spending by others and represent a threat to the political marketplace personally i agree montana has less than a million people and the majority of its economy is controlled by companies based out of the state its democracy is more vulnerable to outside corporate money influence the most which is exactly why the citizens of montana fought for a

this is all the product -- the predictable product, i guess, of the citizens united ruling by the unitede court, this out-of-control super pac environment. do you think stephen colbert is helping by showing how crazy this has become or is he letting people relax about it and thinking it's just kind of funny and turning it into something too light? >> well, lawrence, never underestimate the affect of satire in politics. i think it does have a positive effect, but when you come right down to it, this is not a joke. i mean, super pacs, money in politics completely out of control right now. and it all does go back, not just to what the supreme court did two years ago, 5-4 majority, citizens united against the federal elections commission, saying essentially that corporations are people, and then also combined with the prior supreme court case that said money is speech. well, if corporations are people and money is speech, the net effect is to open the floodgates to money in politics right now in a way that we haven't seen in this country for over 100 years. and given that we are also in a co

again, that's another part of the citizens united ruling. money equals speech. i've got some great news for corporations' right to speak because we just got this in. mitt romney has won the new hampshire primary. 35.6%. mitt romney famously said this summer, "corporations are people," my friend. >> a friend of mine in texas said he will believe corporations are people when texas executes one. [cheering and applause] >> stephen: so you're racist and blood thirsty. bill, thank you so much for joining us. [cheering and applause] bill moyers. "moyers and company." check your local listings on public television. we'll be right back.

again, that's another part of the citizens united ruling. money equals speech. i've got some great news for corporations' right to speak because we just got this in. mitt romney has won the new hampshire primary. 35.6%. mitt romney famously said this summer, "corporations are people," my friend. >> a friend of mine in texas said he will believe corporations are people when texas executes one. [cheering and applause] >> stephen: so you're racist and blood thirsty. bill, thank you so much for joining us. [cheering and applause] bill moyers. "moyers and company." check your local listings on public television. we'll be right back. [cheering and applause] >> stephen: that's it for "thecy comedy central captioned by mea access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org. [knock on door] - hey, jack. - lemon, i was in beijing this weekend, buying a reality show format where criminals try to dance their way to freedom. - jien-yu pi-li-wu, sure. - i also bought this. a chinese knockoff of your book. - what? "dealbreaker: the book for you man no good, by lesbian-yellow-sourfruit." - s

is the impact of the citizens united ruling by the supreme court, but there is an understanding that money in america buys power, and clearly, there is a certain amount of evidence to support that theory. >> what are you making of all of this? >> enjoying it, i suppose. so far, the democratic party have only put out ads against mitt romney, suggesting that he is the candidate they fear most. >> thanks very much. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come, the two sides of sao paulo. with brazil's economy booming, the super rich are riding high, but not everyone is invited to the party. now, the comments britain's prince harry has made about the relationship between his grandmother and the duke of edinburgh. >> when the queen came to the throne, it was the duke of edinburgh who was the first pledged his allegiance immediately after her coronation. since then, they have more or less been inseparable, and on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary, the queen even spoke publicly about how important the duke is to her. >> he is someone who does not take easily to co

all right still to come tonight it's been almost two years since the supreme court ruled on citizens unitedut the battle against it is heating up after the break we're going to hear from james about the growing momentum to stop the ruling on a state and local level. internal mirror military mechanism do not work to bring justice for accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as they care is now a version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm taught her welcome to the big picture. mean. the. bottom of the capitol in calgary i'm lauren lyster. her either to believe the rocking of her leg whatever her testing her nobody seems to know. that never appropriate the face quite hard the argument that they're being overly dramatic. well it's now been nearly two years since the supreme court's citi

in citizens united money is speech the court ultimately ruled that while they can speak freely they can contribute freely writing quote the united states has a compelling interest for purposes of first amendment analysis in limiting the participation of foreign citizens and activities of american democratic self-government and in thereby preventing foreign influence over the u.s. political process but yesterday it was up to the supreme court to give the ultimate say in the matter you know that same supreme court that ruled in citizens united that corporations are people and money is speech so corporations can spend as much money as they'd like buying candidates before the election yep that court was tasked with either upholding the current ban on political contributions by foreign nationals or overturning it and handing off our elections to anybody who's got a few bucks anywhere in the world and the and the corps didn't rewrite election law for the second time in two years and said they up held the current law in sided with the lower court keeping foreign nationals

hasn't the citizens united ruling ushered in these wealthy puppet masters?red in an era when wealthy billionaires can play an outsized role in the process and we're seeing that playing out in south carolina right now. a handful of very wealthy individuals are backing one or the other super packs, bankrolling these ads. the case of the gingrich super pack. the romney super pack has quite a few billionaires. million-dollar donors. others have kicked in a lot of money. the huntsman super pack is being financed by his father, a chemical executive baron. the santorum super pack is backed by foster frees of wyoming.ç so yes, it's ushered in an era where very wealthy individuals can make a big impact and bankroll these ads. >> absolutely. bought and sold. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back to clear the air. ♪ ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪ [ air horn blows ] ♪ i love you and i need you ♪ just to hug and squeeze you ♪ baby, why can't you see? [ female announcer ] the space of a small suv. the fuel effici

lobbying is defense keeping the government from doing things to industries and to companies and united rules to help them avoid to vote actually day or night when i do have presented in a bunch of indian tribes and the way i got into it the first representation i had with the tribes was to stop the federal government from putting a thirty percent tax over the gross revenues of their gambling industry is what was interesting about your case it was not just politician. but also you you cheated your clients namely those indian tribes with gambling interests who paid you mainly and so what i did was what i did was where we're about to pled guilty to was some of the efforts that we did for the clients in their states worst to stop their competition from taking away their markets they would crash their competition yes yes we would attack their competition and we would do everything we could to keep them from invading the market of our client and that's normal in america fortunately for better or for worse that's not something we we made up what i have any regrets about doing that well i think end

on the two year anniversary of the citizen's united ruling, uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts. and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... ♪ [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. >> how citizens beyond is selling primaries to the highest bidder. marry franks is marrying his long time partner in massachusetts where it's legal. should they wanted options, new jersey, washington and maryland might become available. dan savage joins us. since when did presidential debates start sounding like the maury povich show? >> knut in outer space? reports that some science fiction authors agree that gingrich's ideas about it began on the internet ... progressive politics with an edge. these are the young turks: unique voices ... a common goal. they took their message to t

while the two years since the citizens united ruling we've seen shifting attitudes not only as public discontent growing towards the influence of money in politics but so was the discontent from republican candidates both newt gingrich and mitt romney of recently bemoaned the negative campaigning done by super pacs we see digging up the dirt on candidates as exist in our system for a long long time there's just more money and mortgages ations putting that kind of stuff out now and in fact if play such a vital role and is so ingrained that sometimes the candidates themselves forget what their own campaign's put out to attack their competitors take mitt romney at last night's debate for example. the rhetoric on immigration governor has been intense as you well know as all four of you know anyone who watches television you've had an ad running saying that speaker gingrich calls spanish quote the language of the ghetto what do you mean by that i haven't seen the ad so i'm sorry i don't get to see all the t.v. ads we did double check just now governor that ad that we talked about where i q

i still to come tonight it's been almost two years since the supreme court ruled on citizens united buthe battle against it is heating up after the break we're going to hear from jane about the growing momentum to stop the ruling on a state and local level. wealthy british scientists are some time to explain the findings. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. mission in three cretaceous three in-store charges free. range month free. three stooges free. download free blogs just plug in video for your media project a free media and don carty dot com. well it's now been nearly two years since the supreme court's citizens united ruling where the doors were blown out wide open for corporate cash to flow into our elections and the effects can already be seen by the creation of super pacs the rising numbers of money spent but two years on the course against this ruling is growing louder and the push to overturn it amended to race it from o

marched to the supreme court building to demonstrate against corporate personhood and the citizens united ruling and then the crowd marched to the white house to protest the new indefinite detention law that the president had signed for an update on yesterday's actions and where the movement goes now that it's taken its message to the three branches of government america i'm joined by ben mann ski democracy advocate and campaign manager for the green party's presidential candidate dr jill jill stein and ben zucker a participant with occupy d.c. ben and ben welcome because they had to be this new so let's see. ben. man's he will start with you i'm to go yes it would have i thought you guys did a great job i mean it's really incredible to see this new generation of organizers and activists taking it to the hill and it's very clear that there's a lot of deep thinking and this movement this is a long term human process i came in from wisconsin i was here with dr jill stein was out here to support the occupy movement and i think that we're we're looking at a similar kind of frame right now in which w

transparency whether we know who is giving the money it really doesn't matter the fact of the citizens united ruling was swept away completely we still have a totally rotten and corrupt system which we've created so if we if individuals are giving money let's just say you know we weren't in a recession and individuals were giving these millions and millions and thousands of dollars in the weren't those limits wouldn't there not necessarily be a problem with that because then congress would be responsive to the people as opposed to say i don't know goldman sachs or some lobbying firm that has some vested interest in some i don't know airplane military airplane part well how about newt gingrich's friend who's got a vested interest in newt gingrich who's given him three hundred fifty million dollars to try and rescue his hopes in south carolina or jeffrey katzenberg who last year you know the c.e.o. of. dream works animation who last year gave obama's super pac two million dollars i don't think we want to live in a country in which you know the desires and wishes of see those and multi millionaires and

on the two year anniversary of the citizen's united ruling, newt gingrich bits mitt beats mitt romney. that's next. >> how citizens beyond is selling primaries to the highest bidder. marry franks is marrying his long time partner in massachusetts where it's legal. should they wanted options, new jersey, washington and maryland might become available. dan savage joins us. since when did presidential debates start sounding like the maury povich show? >> knut in outer space? reports that some science fiction authors agree that gingrich's ideas about colonizing the moon aren't so crazy after all. key words, science fiction. with an edge. these are the young turks: unique voices ... a common goal. they took their message to the streets and started a movement. now, there's no turning back. the number-one news show on the internet meets the only independent tv news network. the young turks on current tv. >> well, if nothing else, a gig campaign could prove a single individual can keep an entire candidacy afloat. the individual is not newt gingrich. if the pattern holds billionaire casino mog

which a lower court ruling which together with citizens united paved the way for these pacs. >> woodruff: and bill allison, how different does that mean it is for these groups than what it is and the rules for the candidates themselves and what they can raise and spend. >> well, these groups can take contribution of up to $500,000, a million dollars t is unlimited how much an individual, a corporation, a labor union can give to these organizations. a candidate can only raise money in $2500 chunks for his campaign. so you can very quickly build up a huge warchest in these groups to support a candidate. >> woodruff: and what are the rules around transparency? if someone writes a check to one of these groups, is their name going to be found out. fanned so, when? >> this is one of the big problems is that we don't have very fast disclosure for these organizations. and the restore future pac and several other superpacs have changed their filing status, taking advantage of a quirk in the rules which will allow them to not disclose any donors until the end of january by which time not only will

. >>> as we approach the anniversary of the citizens united ruling, a new movement to declare only peoplere people. imagine that. corporations are not people. today common cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog, launched their it drive for a national referendum calling on congress to pass an amendment overturning the supreme court ruling. now they are also in the middle of a huge push against jerry mandering, particularly in new york, along with redistricting. joining us now is a man that not anl understanding the importance of both movements but has reformed the primary system in california. lieutenant governor of california, it's nice to see you. >> great to talk to you. >> i want to move beyond the money in politics issue and take advantage of your expertise on the issues of gerrymandering and primary reform. while money in politics may be the most glaring challenge, it's not our only challenge. lay out how the system distorts our intent beyond money. >> first of all, you're right. money is a problem in politics. there's three things in politics. number one is money. number two and t

there is a conservative republican saying, this anything-goes campaigning, where citizens united rule that a guy with lots of money, the koch brothers or who else can spend zillions of dollars without putting their name on the ad. it's not like little league where you put the name on the back. and he's destroying newt. >> we need some regulation, so these millionaires don't take over! it's an amazing thing. >> and now here he is, the guy hosted on his own petard. they say things like corporations are people too, and dollars are votes. now he turns on the team, poor him and calista. it's sewage coming out of the tv set, constantly. he can give a million debate performances. and romney out there with his beautiful family reciting "american the beautiful." it's like that scene in "the godfather." do you remember? crying at the opera. >> romney's out there with the flags waving -- >> "america the beautiful." >> meanwhile, mitt romney's saying, i can't do modern politics. >> here it is. here's romney. this is a scene out of "the godfather." remember that scene? anyway, let's watch him. jus

. >> it takes a comedian to point out the joke about the citizens united ruling?nders on stephen colbert is coming up. >>> in south carolina, even rick santorum is pooling on mitt romney. piling on. >> he worked at bain capital, that don't necessarily mean he should run for president. >> the panel on the latest chaos in carolina is next. >>> i'm pretty happy to show my record of job creation, actually, my job creation record in the private sector has created more jobs than president obama has created in the entire country. >> really? give us the number. welcome back to the ed show. in the playbook, mitt romney has made some pretty incredible claims when it comes to his experience as a so-called job creator at bain capital. romney says bain created 100,000 jobs. we have yet to see the evidence supporting that assertion. well, south carolina governor nikki haley, a romney surrogate says romney doesn't need to back that claim up. >> because the governor's record whether or not he created 100,000 job, net, net, net, is fair game, do you agree with that? >> you know, w