"countdown" is next. i need you to watch it, and we'll come back monday. "the young turks"." >> which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? nice job. the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up. >> 243,000 new jobs in january, as republicans bury their heads further in the sand. >> while we welcome the positive news today i think our point is very simply: we can do better. >> what this president as done over the last three years has made it harder and harder for businesses to be able to grow and invest in people and hire people. >> that would explain the 3.7 million jobs added in the past 23 months wall street

waivers. how the sec gives the big banks a pass. about face. >> women's health has a big victory this morning. >> the susan g.komen reversus it's decision on planned parenthood. moonlighting in nevada. ron paul gets some unexpected support. >> he knows what women's needs, you want a man who knows his way around a woman. that should help his caucus performing. all that and more now on "countdown"! good evening. this is friday february 3rd, 278 days until the 2012 presidential election. i am david shuster sitting in for keith olbermann. unemployment has fallen again presenting the g.o.p. with a

dlema. g.o.p. thinks they can sweep with one theme: they are the only ones who can turn the economy around. unfortunately for them, the numbers indicate they are wrong. employers added 243,000 jobs last month, dropping the unemployment rate from 8.5% to 8.3. beyond that good news the overall trend seemed positive, too. january was 7th straight month of job growth. the unemployment rate has dropped bringing us to the lowest rate in nearly three years. good news for millions of americans and for president obama who used the news to pressure congress to pass extensions of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance without delay. >> the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up. and we have got to do everything in our power to keep it going. so i want to send a clear message to congress: do not slow down the recovery that we are on. don't muck it up. >> mr. president, as you know

milkinguck mucking things up is what they do best starting with speaker of the house, john boehner. >> while we welcome the positive news today, i think our point is very simple: we can do better? >> to no one's surprise house majority leader eric cantor agreed. >> as my colleagues have laid out, you know, we could do a lot better. >> and g.o.p. front-runner mitt romney chimed in saying form these numbers cannot hide the fact president obama's policies have prevented a true economic recovery. we can do better. it took former house speaker newt gingrich the president might benefit from the rising job numbers. >> the truth is, if it gets better and better and better between now and the election he will get some credit. on the other hand, if this is a lull before it starts getting worse, his re-election will be in enormous trouble. >> if employment gets better and

better, the one thing the g.o.p. fears worst will happen president obama will get credit. newt, you have plenty of problems with your own starting with tomorrow's nevada caucuses. the latest poll shows romney with 50%, doubled newt'stally, tripled ron paul's and rick santorum? rick should probably forget about they have add a ron paul tried to whip his crowd, make that a small crowd, into a frenzy. >> is everybody going to vote come the weekend? i think if everybody voted in this room, we are going to win. >> well, at least he is polling better than santorum. meanwhile, romney is still trying to live down his gaffe of the week. >> i am not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. >> after several attempts to spin that comment, romney offered a full back pedal last night during an interview on a nevada talk show. >> it was a misstatement.

i misspoke. you know when you you do i don't know how many thousands of interviews, you may get it wrong. >> when he gets it wrong he is be confident as long as newt gingrich is running, he will try to run it in. >> not a clever thing for someone who is wealthy. everything we don't want in a general election candidate. >> daniel gross finance economics editor, great having you on the program tonight. >> happy to be here. just for the record, i don't care about the very poor either. >> how significant was this employment report today? is it a game changer for the economy as some economists have suggested? >> it was certainly one of the few employment reports we have had in the last years that people could really get excited about. there were a number of jobs created, 243,000 the fact previous months were revised upwards. the unemployment rate is falling, wages rising. these are the things you expect to see in a healthy, growing

economy. so if we have many more months of these, i think it really is a game changer. one month alone doesn't necessarily make a big difference. >> good point. most economists had expected 150,000, not the 243,000 that came in. where did the jobs come from? any indication that employment local continue to pick up? >> they came from across the board. there were 50,000 jobs added in manufacturing. there were jobs added in professional services, in retail, people usually expect that after christmas, there is a lot of reduction in retail. what this shows i think the numbers showed it 2011 the economy started off very slow and accelerated. each quarter growth was faster. probably 2.8% in the fourth quarter. that shows to me the economy was gathering strength, gathering strength under itself and propelling forward into the first quarter. so i don't think there is any reason absent some kind of huge shock that the economy will not

continue to create a significant number of jobs. >> president obama urged congress to pass the payroll tax cut. how would the economy be affected if those measures do not pass very soon? >> he asked congress not to muck it up. i think congress may tell him to go muck himself. the payroll tax cuts and, you know, if that is not extended there is no question that the economy takes a hit. >> that's taking money out of people's hands who would otherwise spend or invest or save it so that would definitely take growth down by a peg. remember it's not like we are growing at 4 or 5% and it's no big deal if the rate of economic growth delines by a percentage point. somewhere between 2 and 3. >> that's still a little tenuous. it is still important for the economy and the president to get an extension of the payroll tax. >> what about the plight of the long-term unemployed? any good news for them in this report today? >> just the fact that more jobs were created, the employment rate's coming down. what you want is for there to be

kind of less competition for jobs when they come open. also the fact earlier this week first-time unemployment claims, they are down to the 370,000 a week level, way down from a year or two ago, which means fewer people going out into the job market. the job market is nowhere near tight. we need it to be in a situation where employers are compete to go hire people. >> that's when you get wages going up and people who have been on the sidelines are able to jump back in. we are not there yet. >> the stockmarket shot up today. the nasdaq hit an 11-year high. the dow jones hit the best mark in three and a half years. fair to say at least the market isn't buying the g.o.p. scare rhetoric? >> clearly, the stockmarket has been rising since 2009 in anticipation of mitt romney's victory in november. that is a thing you hear from certain quarters. stockmarket is a futures market. when people think the economy will do better down the road,

they tend to bid stocks up. people like to talk about it in terms of politics and it's a bet on obama or romney. investors were excited today because they saw the job creation and expect economic growth will continue. >> a lot of folks concerned about what's going on europe. is that the biggest pitfall ahead, some sort of external factor outside the united states that essentially causes an implosion here? >> if europe is our biggest trading partner so whatever happens there has an impact on u.s. systems, their banking is connected with ours. if they have a melt downtown, that hurts our financial system, but i actually think, you know, the greatest short-term danger perhaps overlooked is congress. if congress doesn't do something very soon, this economy is in danger of putting up a very good year. and when you look at the interest of republicans it's in their interest for the economy to perform in a sub-par manner. we saw last year with the

uncertainty created by the debt ceiling and the prospects of default, you know, that that through a scare into economic growth. we should be worried about europe but we should also be worried billion here at home. >> daniel gross, always great to have you on the program. have a great weekend? >> you, too. >> for more on the political impact of today's jobs report we are joined by washington post national political reporter and "countdown" contributor. republicans different seem very happy about the good news. any idea how they plan on run and beat the president if the jobs picture gets better? >> it looked like they were coordinated today in saying they could do a better job that certainly this was good news for the country, certainly good that so many jobs were created in january, but if they were to come in, if mitt romney was to come in and win the nomination and win the white house, then he could apply his skills from the private sector his skills as a

turnaround artist and make the recovery that much better. it happened that much more quickly. but i think that's sort of a hard argument to sell. mitt romney has come in and he is primaryly running as a private equity guy somebody who has invested in companies and turned them around. he hasn't much talked about his record as a massachusetts governor. so i think it's going to be a harder argument if the economy continues to pick up as some economists suggest this will be a slow but sustained recovery over the next many months. i think it's going to be hard for them to keep casting aspergses on what the president has done. >> house speaker john boehner seemed a lot more eager to attack harry reid and the democratic senate majority than to attack president obama today. what do you make of this and could it be the start of some sort of trend? what's boehner up to? >> i am not sure what they are up to. at some point, they are going to have to be coordinated. at some point, there will be a new head of the republican party. it looks like it will probably

be mitt romney. it's longing strong with nevada coming up this saturday. it looks like he will probably be the nominee pretty soon here, at least the presumptive nominee. but, you know, i think the republicans in some ways have to press the reset button in terms of a lot of their rhetoric in terms of the economy because this president i mean if you look at the numbers, 3.7 million jobs, that's about as many jobs as george bush created in his full eight years so this idea that the president has damaged the economy and, you know, the stimulus package didn't work and that he doesn't know what he is doing, which is mitt romney's argument, the republicans argument. more generally it's starting not to hold up to what is actually happening. i think they don't have anything, republicans, to show for what they have done over this last year when john boehner has been in charge. they can't really take credit for anything that's happening because we of course remember some of the machinations over

the payroll tax cuts. they held it up in the house the. so i think they are in a very difficult position. they have got to do some regrouping over these next days. >> given that empty record and given the number of the job employment numbers, the momentum that the president may have on this, are the democrats perhaps now in a position to really push the congressional g.o.p. to pass the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance extensions this month? >> yeah. i think they are certainly feeling pretty good because they have a record and they can say, what we have been able to to do over these last months is showing some improvement. it's starting to show in these job numbers in terms of the private sector manufacturing, jobs, i think they are in a much better position. you see the president's ratings going up in terms of his favorability. so there is, i think, a slow sense that things are looking better. one of the things is the wrong track/right track numbers, how people are feeling about the way the country is going the way the economy is going. but i think the democrats were able to put together a really,

really great week this week and if you contrast that with mitt romney who, of course made that gaffe that he has backed away from saying he doesn't care about the very poor. well, let's face it, the very poor are some of these, you know, 15 million or so folks who are -- who are unemployed. >> and given that comment, how much were the romney campaign operatives that you were talking about? how much were they oncing when romney said that after 36 hours, he said i made a mistake. >> they thought they could play he was taken out of context game but if you looked at it in the full context of it, it was still pretty bad. and i think one of the things that happened over these, you know 24, 36 hours, was that republicans really came out, jim demint came out to say he would have to take back what he said and really recon textualize it. he was hammered from the left

and the right and he came out and completely retracted it. but again, that's going to be a sound byte and an image and an idea about mitt romney that lingers and lingers and lingers for months to come. >> nia malika henderson thank you very much. >> thank you, david. up next if you steal or swindle money from your neighbors, you will face sanctions. why are banks getting passed girls at a brothel say they will now pimp for ron paul. you are watching "countdown"! wait until you see what they are planning. and the scene was wolf? get it? you will when time marches on.

>> in the wake of their terrible decision over planned parenthood, the komen foundation

tweeted the pr equivalent of the morning after pill. some working girls in nevada tried to deliver a thousand dollars in cash to ron paul. they didn't accept the money but they didn't exactly turn it away. the n.f.l. super bowl but the occupy super bowl has already begun. the world of ping pong is ablaze with the rival of its newest starnd he is still in diapers. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

>> during his state of the union address last week president obama called on congress to toughen laws against securities fraud and strengthen the security & exchange commission to police. is it trying to use the power it currently has? in our fourth story on the "countdown", while the sec has increased scrutiny of wall street following the economic collapse, it has repeatedly allowed the largest firms to deter penalty at this. the "new york times" uncovered 350 instances where the sec gave them a pass allowing them to avoid liability from certain lawsuits and making it easier to raise money from investors, allowing companies like jp morgan chase and bank of america, goldman sachs to keep benefits normally reserved for

the healthiest companies. republican senator charles grassley told the times it's hard to see why the sec isn't using all of its winters' property. by waving, no wonder recidivism is such a problem. >> the purpose of taking away it not to punish a company, not seeing times that waivers aren't being granted because the companies don't ask when they know the answer will be no. meanwhile timothy geithner is defending the financial reforms. he noted tighter regulations are already making the financial system stronger and safer although there is still more to be done. >> much of the excess risk taking and careless and damaging financial practices that caused so much damage to the american economy have been forced out of the financial system.

these gains, though, will erode over time if we are not able to put these full reforms into place. >> apparently the system isn't strong enough for new york's attorney general, accusing some of the biggest nations of defeat and fraud. eric scneiderman announced he is suing the three over their use of an electronic mortgage registry that he says puts homeowners at a disadd vantsage in foreclosure cases. let's bring in matt taibbi. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me in. >> this analysis by the "new york times". is it a sign the sec is not doing enough or as they argue, they are enforcing the rules as they best suit the public and the economic recovery. >> it's a great story by the "new york times", a great piece of investigative journalism. i agree with senator grassley. it's another example of the sec failing to do its job. you have to think about the context of this. imagine a single mother who gets

caught for committing welfare fraud in someplace like riverside county california. she is going to lose her kids. they are going to take her kids away and put them in foster care. here, you have this guy gantic companies like jp morgan chase, they are cereally caught and they are allowed to continue engaging in the same kind of business activities and they give them special waivers to go out and raise money? it's unbelievable we do not show the same kind of consideration to other kinds of citizens. >> the sec, therefore, is not using its powers deliberately doesn't that blow a hole in president obama's argument that the sec should have more power? >> again, i completely agree with senator grassley. the sec and generally speaking, the financial regulate ors have enormaus power. we don't need action up and downed power. they just haven't done the job. we need new people to come in there who are actually going to do the job of prosecuting and

enforcing these rules. >> one of the people trying to prosecutor, new york's attorney general knight snyderman. >> this for the mers violations is so long over new. it's the electronic mortgage registry, a gigantic scheme to evade taxes and commit perjury and fraud by, you know, failing to properly register mortgages. you have 12 million foreclosures here in new york state and they are all merged as a plaintiff. the company has 70 employees. they couldn't possibly be the real plaintiff in all of these foreclosure cases. it's long other than dew. it's incredible it took this long for somebody to move against these banks for setting up this registry but it's a great thing that he did. >> is that perhaps the only route the public has to hope state officials will continue to pursue this state given the sec, the federal government seems incapable of doing it?

>> i think it's probably the best hope certainly no new york, a state like new york has expanded power because they have the martin act. it's going to be easier for them to pursue cases against financial criminals, but i think, also, the obama administration is starting to get a little bit of religion on this stuff nominating schneiderman, that, to me is an indication that he is seeing people want action on these issues, not more talk talk. >> does part of the action mean they are changing leadership at the sec or essentially providing people in key positions actually going to use the power they should be using? >> ultimately, they are going to need new people. i mean the history of the sec and most of the regulators, in fact, is you bring in a bunch of people from the banks that they should be investigating to run the enforcement divisions, look the current head of the sec is bob quasami, former general counsel of deutsche bank that should be under investigation

for a variety of things. so they have to ultimately get people. but temporarily, i think they need to take instruction from somebody and somebody to say you have to look into these things. >> the republicans in florida and before that, south carolina, new hampshire, iowa, the republican presidential candidates are about let's get rid of reform. everything the president did was wrong. what do you make of that? >> well, look dodd-frank was dipping a toe in the lake of commitment really. i mean they could have done and they needed to do so much more to clean up wall street if you think about what f.d.r. did after the crash, you know, back in the depression, they completely completely reformed and cleaned up wall street and we didn't do that this time. we really needed to. for them to say dodd-frank was going too far is preposterous. it's economic and not taken seriously on wall street but they are going to score a lot points with people who are against regulation in general. >> when folks on wall street hear mitt romney saying no regulatory reform they are

laughing, saying that doesn't solve the problem but we love that mitt romney sort of looking out. >> absolutely. he is standing up for us. look, they have the expectation that they are going to get that role back. they have been getting nothing but deregulation for 20s, 30 years, and for them to have any regulation increased at all is an abberation they have a full expectation that all of these laws will be whittled away again. it's just it will take them a little while. >> matt taibbi rolling stolen "countdown" contributor. thank you for coming in? >> thank you. >> the komen foundation apologized foplanned parenthood and reversed the decision. the damage komen i know conflicted upon its self may not happen. >> a kid in diapers swinging a ping pong paddle? until time marches on!

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#. >> coming up the disan g.komen foundation reverses their decision ol planned parenthood. in 1809, the territory of illinois was created, the 15th and 16th amendments were ratified today 43 years apart. buddy holly and the big bopper died in a plane crash. lastly, in 2008 the 12 new york giants upset the previously undefeated patri-i don't think so in super bowl 42. "time marches on". >> we begin in the russian area where this rural farmer has created the sheep car wash. don't forget the hot wax. i am not sure how clean this car is getting but the good news is

i am sure this guy had no trouble falling asleep when he got home. to quala lampore. this driver was able to slow down and then our hero decides to take a shot at his parking job and cue the blues brothers music. this is no accident as the driver slams into the store over and over again. could this be a business deal gone bad or a jittered lover or maybe just maybe she is trying to prove a point that four wheels are better than two. lted lover or maybe just maybe she is trying to prove a point that four wheels are better than two. to the sports world. i think we have found the next ping upon prodigy. the killer forehand it is too late to qualify for the london olympics but the national team better keep a spot open for 2016. looks like he still needs a little work. maybe on the back end. but there are other issues as well, mainly the sitting on the

table part crying when he loses a point and, of course soiling his uniform. everyone knows there is no crying in ping tong. "time marches on"! coming up, political endorsements usually don't matter very much unless they come from donald trump or a brothel in net asset value. you heard about trump yesterday. we will tell you about the brothel today and the reaction from the ron paul campaign. the komen foundation spent 30 years building his recommendtation. the current administration needed 36 hours to destroy it. is their apology enough? ahead on "countdown"! >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

we bring you "countdown" live each night. primary replace at less than p.m. and 2:00 a.m. eastern. in an effort at damage control the susan g.komen foundation made a huge reversal but their cure may be too late to save the group's reputation. in our third story, the world's largest breast cancer research organization made a u-turn and apologized for the can you tell ming off funds for breast cancer screenings in a written statement, komen said we will continue to fund existing grants including those of planned parent and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grands and and the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political because that is what is right and fair. by all counts, komen is the most

widely known and well funded breast cancer foundation in the world. they have raised $19,000,000,000, and in recent years, their pink ribbons have become part of our cultural fab ring. they convinced major league baseball to have pink bats, pink yogurt lives to quote save lives. kentucky fried chicken rolled out pink buckets for the cure. even delta got involved through pink airline flights. in september, an ardent pro-life republican launched his own investigation of abortion services performed by planned parenthood and three days ago, citing that investigation, komen severed ties to planned parenthood and the response was immediate and fierce reactions over twitter and their message board, letters urging them to reverse the position.

planned parent retweeted positive messages and reminding people across the internet how to donate and make up for komen's cuts. they responded defensively and couldn't get it's story straight. nancy brinker delivered a youtube message claiming it -- did not mention planned parenthood once but said they would not bow to political pressure and they insisted they didn't cut off funds because of their no-in vest which they reinformed and they streamlined and that the public was soeshlths supportive. >> look at your facebook page, people cutting pink ribbons in half. >> and degree i can't, all i can tell you is that we are -- the spontsz we are getting are very very favorable. >> so favorable that less than 18 hours after that interview, komen decided to reverse course and apologize. as for planned parenthood the

komen miss cue prompted donations of $3 million. joining us is jess mcintosh for emily's list. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> is komen sorry or are they sorry in this world of social media they got called out on it so quickly and powerful? >> look i think they totally under estimated the backlash and this goes to show the power of activists and donors and elected officials when they put the pressure on. but what matters now is what happens next. and frankly, women are sick of having to fight back every time our healthcare is threatened. and frankly, the most effective way to do that is to elect more pro-choice democratic women to congress to stop the attacks. that's the next of emily's list and what we are hoping to do in 2012. >> there seems to be a threat from komen. they say planned parenthood will be eligible but does not

guarantee they will receive funding in the future? isn't this a problem? >> it's certainly a case for us to remain vigilant but we pro-choice women. vigilenc is what we do. if you adopt a tea party policy ending medicare as we know it, that was a pr the attempts to redefine rape, a pr disaster, cutting off funds for planned parenthood. you would think they would have learned their lesson by now but i guess not. >> planned parenthood has drawn the wrath of the anti-abortion movement. with an amendment that house republicans tacked on. what happened in this particular case? what was it about this issue that caused this kind of backlash. >> this is the latest in a long lit knee of republican attempts to curtail women's access to

healthcare. every time they try, we fight back. every time we fight back, we get a little better did he have did he have lit knee -- since boehner took over as speaker, we doubled our membership. any -- since boehner took over as speaker, we doubled our membership. we are going to do the next right at 1 million strong. >> not everybody it was thrilled. david vitter of louisiana who approved their actions said, well, komen claims they don't want their mission to be claimed by politics, it seems that komen caved to the pro-abortion movement and its enforcers in the media. what do you make of that? >> david vitter was the only one who didn't get the memo republicans were not supposed to crow about cutting off funding for planned parenthood. david vitter is hell bent on cutting off access to women's healthcare and we are hell-bent

on fighting back. i urge you and your viewers to check out our awesome female candidates. if we can replace some of these guys with democratic women actually going to stand up and support women and families, wouldn't that be an awesome thing? >> never mind replacing congressman stearns who launched this in the fall? what about replacing the leadership of komen? lots of democrats who wear the pink ribbons and on and on. does something needing to be done with their leadership? >> that will be up to komen supporters. it's amazing to see the out pouring of support for planned parent parenthood people know how to show their ad voc casey with tweets and dollars. we will see more of that. they will make their decisions based upon their base. >> thank you. we appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> you are welcome. coming up, a closer look at the activism arising in sxwavps,

india, the kickoff for occupy the super bowl happened today. up next, a brothel in nevada tried to give donations to the ron paul campaign. campaign responded by... you just have to watch. wait until you see what they are planning. and the scene was wolf? get it? you will when time marches on. planned parenthood. anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious. drama, when we return.

>> in a part of nevada when are prostitution is legal, the ladies at a brothel have endorsed ron paul. they say dr. paul has some special skills. and in indianapolis where the patriots are favored over the giants occupy super bowl has already begun and do not bet against the protesters!ccm05864