policy so will they still choose him in two thousand and twelve in order to keep republicans out of executive power or will the president find himself in trouble come november how sparks is going to be with us and then rolling stones michael hastings had the rare opportunity to sit down with wiki leaks founder julian assange for a one on one interview so hastings is going to join us to tell us about a songes regrets his take on the u.s. government's case against him and the future of wiki leaks and also big news tonight the state department and obama administration announced they will not be supporting the keystone x.l. pipeline so we're going to have all of that more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at the mainstream media has decided to miss. so today january eighteenth is blackout day in protest of sopa the stop online piracy act in the house and to protect ip act in the senate hundreds of websites have blacked out their websites and guess what the mainstream media finally noticed

. several websites including wicked pedia are blacking out their web pages for the entire day they're protesting an anti-piracy billing congress a defiant protest today several web sites including wicked pedia literally shutting down their sites they have gone dark today as a protest of a new bill that many critics say could lead to censorship that's just the latest in a widening base of high profile sites protesting a pair a pair of them of anti-piracy bills making their way through congress the bills would force us internet providers like comcast or eighteen t to block communications to offshore sites that steal content and this is really the unprecedented step for internet companies in the united states to use their home page to protest a very bad very bad public policy. although i have to say about this is welcome mainstream media welcome to the world that you've been ignoring for so long where opposition to these two anti-piracy laws has been growing for months

welcome to the world where the biggest tech companies were online communities like reddit where blogs and think tanks the legal scholars far and wide have all been voicing their concerns about these bills that would allow the u.s. government to blacklist web sites and according to some break the internet my only question is where are you been all of this time i love the fox news even try to claim that these pieces of legislation are new like they just popped up out of thin air yesterday and immediately we saw this quarter native response of this magnitude well guess what guys they're not new you're just waking up to them and when i say courtenay the response i mean it is the mainstream media has chosen to focus solely on wikipedia but they're not the only ones the blacked out their websites today so did wired dot com so did boeing boeing so to read it so did the oatmeal and even google took part in the believe me the list goes on and on and on for ross story to democratic underground in craigslist and so on and if we may go back to

a. for just one moment there was one single page on their site today they didn't blackout being the site for censorship so now listen one hand we're seeing today is a great testament to the power of online activism the power of the internet and the amount of information and the amount of content that's available on it we take for granted every day those bills that those opposed to these bills want to protect but what's sad of course is that well it took wikipedia blackout its web site for the mainstream media to finally even notice that this was happening it shows you that they don't know an important story until it's staring them directly in the face and once again aside from chris hayes show on m.s.n. we see the last week and really did do an in-depth page on this issue everybody else well even really slow to follow suit and once again you have to ask why would they follow suit it's a very convenient for the mainstream media to ignore sopa and protect ip because let's see viacom comcast n.b.c. universal time warner news corp all the parent companies of these channels are in

support of sopa and protect ip now what i fear is after today after this blackout day the mainstream media will just move on and once again forget that this battle is even taking place we all know they have a painfully short attention span unless it deals with campaign politics or sex scandals so once again i welcome the mainstream media the world of the rest of us have been living it this weird world where people on the internet actually talk about what matters to them rather than political tit for tat but i dare them to keep it up so only tomorrow will tell and for some reason just get the feeling that starting tomorrow they're going to continue to miss. arias so we went through a brief list for you of the many many websites that are out there which have blacked out their sites for the day and aside from finally getting the mainstream media to pay a little bit of attention looks like this protest is really working on capitol hill

for sponsors of pip of dropped out senators mark or. rubio john boozman orrin hatch roy blunt and james inhofe that's five now on the sofa side sponsors ben quayle tim holden and co-sponsors lead terry and roy blunt announce avail they're moving their names many other members of congress aren't sponsors or authors of the bills have also released public statements today signaling their opposition that includes dare i say rick larsen senators john cornyn and mark kirk and the list keeps on going now in addition the phone lines and the websites of members of congress were overwhelmed today by those in opposition so in this battle of hollywood versus the tech industry on the tables finally beginning to turn joining me to discuss this is reddit co-founder alexis ohanian alexis thank you so much for joining us tonight and just looking at what i've named you know in terms of the lists of the members of congress that now have publicly come out in opposition in terms of the websites that are blacked out would you say that this day of protest has been a success a failure is it too early to tell and it has been

a resoundingly success because this has just been protests this is also been offline protest i was fortunate enough to speak at the new york tech meetup protest outside of our senators offices here in midtown new york and i saw that i was of new york's job creators the business people the programmers the innovators who would much rather be working on their startups right now came out in mass to support what was probably the key is to and most rational protest ever in the history of new york city speaking out against these bills and it wasn't just here in new york it was in cities all across the country and it's very very encouraging well i mean you call it geeky but at the same time the internet is something that we all use at this point right it's not just for the nerds it's something that every single one of us depends on and i think you can say especially maybe the younger generation so in that sets if we look at this battle that's going on is a battle of old versus new is it you know the entertainment industry there are

a the m.p.a. versus silicon valley. well aside from the fact that i'm a big cheerleader for new york tech. i think it is much bigger than just silicon valley in fact i would reposition it as a battle of sort of government as usual lobbying dollars dictating policy versus american the electorate dictating policy when you actually look at the numbers last year ninety four million dollars from hollywood went into government in order to basically get this bill ready for these bills written and it's frustrating because we have a congress that can't solve any of the important issues of the day things like unemployment things like the deficit they are gridlocked on but yet as soon as a lobbyist shows up ninety four million dollars you've got democrats and republicans lining up to co-sponsor bad legislation written by lobbyists not technologists that would lead to the wholesale destruction of one of althea's parts the u.s. economy so what i what i'm seeing now is not just the tech community up in arms

it's americans up in arms and it's great to see it because that after all is the promise of a connected world that's what the internet was supposed to bring in now all the people who enjoy it whether it's for you know finishing up a college research paper or activate or doing actual activism where we're speaking up and we're actually being are the an unfortunate part there too is that you know there is going to be gridlock and congress even when there is a lot of lobbying money involved if you look back to the health care debate which i think was the most heavily lobbied piece of legislation the most amount of money was spent on it and there is still this current law because everyone's lobbying from from either side but so in that sense i mean you you know on one hand you can say that they're listening to the people on this one but do we also see the tech giants who are obviously playing a very big role in this changing the game saying that we're not going to pay to play the way that it usually works. well you know the numbers that i just quoted came from the center for responsive politics and last year the entire tech sector

lobbied fifteen million dollars worth of money compared to the after mentioned ninety four million so clearly they haven't been playing this p.c. game you know we we have a very different perspective in our industry we work we operate on the most level playing field the world has ever seen the internet is a meritocracy in the purest form as long as it's free and fair all links are created equal the best stuff does well it's it's very encouraging to know we can build something and if we build something better than our competition it can thrive we can succeed whether it's a business or whether it's a nonprofit or whether it's an idea and we i think naively assume that well obviously everything else must work that way and then to see something so blatant as what we've seen with soap and work absolutely not that way where the best ideas were ignored and what we've got is instead what was basically paid for it those two world came crashing together and so you know we've had a great opportunity but i really i think this is just beginning and it's not

feeling that's just attack or world it's it's america well like this you know we've been talking about south africa activity for months here on this shall we had a lot of ways to chime in and terms of why exactly they think that this is dangerous so let me let me give you your attorney as well and tell us what it is that you think is most damaging about the film as the way they found. well you know the the most thorough explanation is on blog dot road dot com and because it's extremely technical and a number of pages brings me coffee when you read it but i recommend you read it. in a nutshell the legislation is like i said written by lobbyists not technology and so some of the language in there is so incredibly vague that it's really open to all kinds of return interpretation depending on who's reading it and it creates such a clumsy large stick that can be used to basically inhibit domestic sites. while the targets the technical targets are foreign domain names there's so much

confusing language sometimes even misunderstanding whether or not an american site operating under a foreign domain or a foreign domain like pirate bay dot org operating under a u.s. domain is classified as foreign or domestic when you get to the actual technical language of it it's absurd and so rather you can't help but think so much potential comes from this industry where you know for instance steve and i never could have started reddit if either of these laws were in place that we owe it and i feel like every other tech company or every website that took itself down today in part was doing so because it acknowledged the fact that if these laws had been in place we wouldn't have all the things that we enjoy today and you know all of these pro-social and government officials wouldn't be able to tweet out their messages or upload you tube videos of their content so we do that we're going to take a lexus let me ask you one last question what we did is the absence of our viewers

if they had any questions for you so on twitter and so here's why because at the moment you know what's been done with paper although harry reid is still pushing forward with it so they say that it might be postponed you know how congress likes to wear it and they're going to try to do it sneakily at some other time so charles gabriel asked a question if so but actually becomes law. and red is gone what do you plan to work on next and that's a good that's a good question what do you do do you leave the country and go start your business elsewhere that's depressing cards and so to be clear i am no longer c.e.o. of reddit i'm on the board of directors the team at reddit is running it all it's obviously doing a great job i give advice right and last year i started in the story with a buddy of mine steve who's my cofounder read it called it like it's a travel search website and fortunately because it doesn't have user generated content it is. it is the kind of thing that would kind of awkwardly fall into that very gray area if these bills were to become law and so as an entrepreneur for

a site like that and like all the others that are actually user generated sites like reddit yeah your best option is probably canada at least for the time being because you know unfortunately the u.s. seems to set a standard when it comes to a lot of these laws and it would be it wouldn't be hard for me madge in a scenario where a law that when into effect in the united states would rather quickly be eight by other nations and yet harry reid wants to claim that this is a jobs bill. anyway i think that the people on car got people in congress need to really take note that this might push business as a country lexus thank you so much for joining us tonight and it's exciting you know we like i said we've been talking about for months it's exciting to see this massive action online and i hope that it continues thanks well and think you. are. all right guys it's time for

a special edition of our tool time award not only we have three winners today but they're all washington power players that are backing sopa and pipa lamar smith harry reid and chris dodd they've all seen plenty of time on capitol hill they are all very familiar with the process of pushing bills through congress pushing bills through congress excuse me and they're using that power so it started perhaps the worst offender who is lamar smith he is the chairman of the house judiciary committee and he's been on board with sopa from the very beginning and fact he wrote and he is the chief sponsor but this isn't his first time to the censorship rodeo he's also been linked to the past efforts to create similar legislation like two thousand and eight protect ip act which he co-sponsored and there's even more he also support of the two thousand and ten internet investment innovation and competition preservation act which will stop that c.c. from acting that neutrality regulations and despite the judiciary committee's utter lack of understanding of copyright infringement when they debated this bill back in

december well mar smith is dismissing this entire blackout across the web today he called it a publicity stunt and then went on to say it is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about sopa this publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts perhaps during the internet blackout internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy and you know it is ironic that these men that are elected into office by the people choose to simply dismiss outcry from those same people who gave them their job i'm sorry but i thought that elected officials are supposed to have an ear to the voters not to the entertainment industry who just gives them the big bucks oh yeah that's our political system works these days you pay to play so perhaps we should follow the money trail term mind us why this texas conservative is so adamant about this bill so according to open secrets smith's top campaign donations came from the t.v. and cable industry about ten percent of his campaign donations between two thousand and nine. and two thousand and eleven came from t.v.

and cable totaling over one hundred thirty thousand dollars t.v. and cable contributed another eighty eight thousand dollars just to his reelection campaign with cable provider clear channel dropping twenty three thousand dollars so far so just more proof that money is the be all and end all when it comes to what happens on capitol hill but it's not the only one that's influenced by the benjamins chris dodd former lawmaker turned and be a cheerleader has now gone against his past rouse not to lobby and two thousand and ten he promised that he would not be taking that trip through washington's revolving door but alas it looks like the money really does change everything see now the current c.e.o. of the n.p.a. is getting paid over a million dollars a year he's speaking out in favor of sopa but he also called today's internet blackout of silicon silicon valley's way of resorting to stunts he said it is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and who use their services is also an abuse of power given these freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today so irresponsible response and abuse of power maybe

a lifelong lobbyist was they things like this but not before a presidential candidate now the right to protest is one of the most fundamental powers given to americans by way of the constitution so what a difference a few years makes it seems like god is forgotten that even pretend that he actually believes in that document anymore he's now far more vocal about his disdain for both the right to protest and it seems the freedom of speech but our third offender tonight is actually working the hardest to get the senate version the protect ip act to pass the senate majority leader harry reid has vowed to get people to reach the floor for a vote sooner rather than later it despite the fact that opponents of the legislation are literally growing by the hour including co-sponsors of the bill and even the white house read it still fighting to get this thing signed and out of his hair he's so determined to get legislation that could change the internet as we know it past that he's willing to use misleading rhetoric on national t.v. for this cause through this past sunday he was asked about protect ip on n.b.c.'s meet the press david gregory asked him why is pushing so hard for this bill to go

through despite the growing outcry and here's what harry reid had to say. or having a very important piece of legislation the portal to this network right here ip and that's the course to be with informational with with making sure that we have more actual profit is protected and we need to do that and that's also job saving so that's what we need to work on things create jobs and protect the american economy . we're on to you you just try to say this is a job creator we've told our viewers time and time again that this bill has nothing to do with jobs if anything it's going to hurt more jobs in silicon valley's than elsewhere and don't forget that is there is going fast is that it will rescue jobs in hollywood we've told you before you know why they're hiring few people fewer people in hollywood it's because the numbers prove that the executives are raking in the big bucks with less staff so clearly he doesn't watch our show but so here we are again watching

a bunch of all politicians that are supposed to be working for us refusing to listen to the american people especially those that know what they're talking about when it comes to the internet so there's public opposition the way that we've seen over the past month help over the course of just today should be sending red flags and warning signs to congress that this bill is not right now as we told you earlier a lot of websites either completely blacked out their pages to protest the bills or they're at least blacked out their content but frankly we just wish that we could blackout these three for their work trying to get these draconian measures passed as law sadly we don't really have that power but we can't condemn them for their actions and that's why lamar smith harry reid and chris dodd are tonight's tool time winners. i thought to come tonight aggressive within the democratic party to express their disappointment with the obama presidency from almost day one but when you look at the republican field you have to ask if they really have anywhere else to go what is all mean for president obama's chances come november from this politics with actor and comedian hal sparks after the break.

find me on t.v. i mean it's. the people calling like you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the muslim terrorism as you can hear behind me loud explosions. we've seen in all three i mean it. gave me a. guitar

sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

well much of the debate we hear today primaries are underway in the g.o.p. field of candidates is whittled down are the scandals of these candidates mitt romney's bain capital problem the fact that only pays fifteen percent in taxes there is a serial flip flopper romney and gingrich tearing each other apart and tax about who suddenly hate super pacs more and the question is always how will this help the obama campaign but should the administration actually start hearing its own base as well so it's no secret there is why discontent on matters of immigration policy not prosecuting wall street and worst of all my mind an assault on civil liberties but will the left forgive obama and all of his faults to forgo the threat of this. my view on other social issues such as gay marriage i've always opposed gay marriage i believe that we should provide equal rights to people regardless of their sexual orientation but i do not believe that marriage should be between two people people

of the same gender the idea that the catholic charities cannot take money or with the federal government this administration won't give them those dollars for sexually trafficked individuals because this administration doesn't agree with the catholic church on the issue of abortion if that's not a war on religion i don't know what it is in this administration thank you speaker gingrich you recently said black americans should demand jobs not food stamps you also said poor kids lack a strong work ethic and propose having them work as janitors in their schools can't you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all americans but particularly to black americans. i don't see thank i so joining me from our studio in los angeles to discuss all of this is comedian and actor how sparks how thanks so much for joining

us tonight and so you know i played some of those clips this is a republican field in my mind we've been forced to suffer through an inhumane amount of these debates and there's going to be a second one just this week so just you know overall what's your view i've heard it all i'm going to start off by disagreeing with you right away because this is for the most people to know this these a debates are actually not singular debates meant to pick a republican candidate this is a new sitcom that debuted earlier last year and is one of the most successful i mean it's they they keep adding episodes it keeps getting funnier even though they're eliminating cast members week after week it's like it's it's kind of stunning how well it's done i always meant to be a comedy well i mean it's stunning and it's a little scary if you ask me. these are the actual contenders and like i just said in the introduction here is that often this makes people on the left bring a sigh of relief because they say well if that's the obama's going up against then he's fine but let's actually step outside of that for a moment if you were looking at president obama and his record his policies while

in office not comparatively but just solely based on merit on what he's done do you think that he deserves to be reelected. i do i do i have no problem saying that whatsoever i mean i think i'm more of a realist i think than than i think you know a certain segment of of the like the progressives in media. and there's only about the owner of them the glenn the no no i'm talking about saying glenn greenwald to some degree i have no problem with calling certain elements out i just believe in and sort of an honest discourse that there's more than one person in government and if you're going to lay everything at obama's feet and it lets too many people off the hook that's the part i disagree with and i think you know even if you look at sopa for example the president came out and said don't support it won't support it my administration is against the keystone pipeline you know yesterday just going it's not going to happen. i think those are things that are

just softball you know you know red meat for our for the for the left the base i think was a genuine decision presidential ones that actually earned some merit i think you know he's taken hits on the n.b.a. as a valid but i live in let me in to interrupt you here for is that i also think that i also think the senate and the congress have to have totally dodged the bullet on the n.d.a. when i was there and that's allegedly our responsibility on the left eye but let me disagree with you here for a moment because and you know andrew sullivan has to do piece in newsweek this week saying that obama's critics are dumb and he has some good points when it comes to some of the stuff that we hear from the right calling him a socialist saying that he's you know kenyan anti-colonial s. and whatnot but i feel like his critiques of those on the left and you know certain things like you say say that you're a realist to me these are some of the greatest offensives that have happened in terms of civil liberties and those are actual presidential actions in terms of violating our civil liberties like letting anwar oh i don't like using the state

secrets privilege like continuing on programs of surveillance of american citizens and going after whistleblowers that is the obama. ministrations i think and i've been there and out of usually we get obviously we could slice up chunks of each one of those and actually have you know legitimate discourses on all of them because i think there are there are grounds and reasonableness on on both sides in parts of it and i think grabbing for the extremities of them all of them get painted immediately as can be painted as negative or positive depending on which way you flip but the i think the issue with the president in a lot of these ways is who do you want in charge of these kind of systems i think a lot like the spying on american citizens for particularly dealing with occupy or whatever is largely a state oriented and city oriented endeavor the ties to the d.h.s.s. were were completely fabricated that was a that was an on source story that went very deep but it but there were people who ran with it to paint the administration as being some sort of draconian overseer

this big brother aspect of things when it was really largely a right motivated activity i let me ask you we were running out but i didn't have as i have been where i have the mail i stand for yeah just because we're running out of time if we look at what i share you know wide actions right now against citizens united the occupy wall street movement actions against sopa and pipa do you think about also means that by the way americans are starting to wake up and go after things that they can attack with their brain not necessarily their heart like you know where you see the issue of abortion takes center stage but is that changing now. well i think i think it has to i think ultimately when we were fighting the soviet union there was almost a scientific bent to what americans were going for math and science where the way we fought back against the soviet union and this idea you know that we had and then we moved into a religious war essentially and that's all five thought not only with hearts and spiritual beliefs but almost a lack of knowledge lack of scientific approach so i think we're getting back to that because we're thinking you know twenty twelve is you know we've got whatever

ten months until the end of the world and if it doesn't happen we're going to start having to act like we're going to be here for a long time and i think there's a good portion of the public that are going we've got to start thinking about long game how we're going to behave and that's where dissatisfaction with with our how to listen are you kind of out of time i got to cut you off but thank you for a half and i thank you absolutely. breaking it right back. into the only military mechanisms to do the work to bring justice for accountability. i have every right to know what my government's doing you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it.