bo sat down with booktv to answer viewer questions at the festival of books and to discuss the book, marijuana legalization. that airs next on booktv. it s about a half hour. who is one of the co-authors of this book, marijuana legalization: what everyone needs to know. he s with the rand corporation. if you would, start by making an argument for legalizing marijuana and against legalizing marijuana. well, there s a number of argumenting made on either side. some folks that want to legalize marijuana are not happy with the fact that there are, you know, 800,000 arrests every year for marijuana possession. they are unhappy that people are being, you know, put through the criminal justice system for consuming a substance they believe it safer than alcohol, and some people argue that if you were to legalize marijuana, you would be able to tax it to generate revenue. on the other side, a lot of people have concerns about making another intoxicant legal. they look at what
today because i m tired, will you do what you normally do, watch the propaganda? yes. do it in a nice way. that s very tough for me. you re better at being nice. it s taken me a while, but i do it now. i admire your ability to say it so smoothly and make everybody laugh, yet should i bring a helmet and maybe some shoulder pads, a little armor? i don t know where this is going. anyway, good morning. tuesday has been a good day of the week for the bulls this year. we should say i don t know if it s a the dow has been up for 16 consecutive tuesdays. statistically that s at least true. meantime, the transports closed at a record high yesterday. take a look for the first time since mid march and take a look at futures right now. they feel good, right? the transports confirming they pulled back. yeah. they pulled back. wondering what s going on. no, it is good. don t i m not. the dow, we should say, looking up right now. it looks like it would op
and richard canton, executive editor of the nation.com and playright and host of a radio show and jonathan alter, the author of the book the promise. great to have you here, jonathan. because the past week was, i think it was widely acknowledged the first week of the general election, i want to talk about what the race looks like to me. as the incumbent, president obama has a good-enough record to run on, passing universal health care coverage for the first time in the country s history. but the most central argument for re-election, a slowly-improving world economy is the one message that polling and focus groups show that voters are least receptive to. the president can t say that things are getting better because the electorate is still so anxious. soit so the president is pivoting. the congressional republican budget is something different all together. it s a trojan horse, disguised as deficit reduction plans. it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on
promise. great to have you here, jonathan. because the past week was, i think it was widely acknowledged the first week of the general election, i want to talk about what the race looks like to me. as the incumbent, president obama has a good-enough record to run on, passing universal health care coverage for the first time in the country s history. but the most central argument for re-election, a slowly-improving world economy is the one message that polling and focus groups show that voters are least receptive to. the president can t say that things are getting better because the electorate is still so anxious. soit so the president is pivoting. the congressional republican budget is something different all together. it s a trojan horse, disguised as deficit reduction plans. it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it is thinly-veiled social darwinism. we saw the president painting mitt romney as stiff and out of touch. he said that he s v
will determine the fate of the law and to some extent the presidential election. we ll hear from both sides, and could it be better politically to lose this case? some believe that a loss would inspire their side, democrats or republicans, to work harder in the election. rick santorum has it out with a new york times reporter and then brags about how tough he was with the new york times. and now we re getting george zimmerman s account of what happened that night. and finally, let me finish with the high stakes action in the supreme court this week. we begin with the supreme court with nbc s pete williams. what got done today? what could you see get suicided? a very important piece of underbrush was cleared away. if any of the justices were reluctant in an election year, they had an off ramp today. the question is do the challengers have to come back. congress passed a law that says you cannot challenge a federal tax before it goes into effect. you have to pay a penal