hool sign, here's the cigarette stand. no one has any problem with this? (vo)and current tv creates the commentary that drives the truth. this is the new current tv. interracial marriage barriers. don't miss it. "countdown" is next. >> which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow. the president's plan to cut corporate tax rates to 28%. >> i understand that it sounds like he's lowering taxes but he's raising taxes. >> romney vows to cap all taxes at 28%. your bid. now tied with romney in michigan, trailing in arizona. defending his satan commends and gets slammed by an old republican stalwart.

>> he's rigid and homophobic. >> and he's on the offense. >> the president refuses to same evil evil. he won't even name it. but. >> the democratic party has become the party of woodstock. they prey upon our most basic primal lusts it's not about life will you sexual freedom. that's what it's all about sexual freedom. virginia's transvaginal penetration bill. >> they have removeed the portion about forced probing of women. but it may be there under a different guise. and police scandal targeting muslims, this time at yale university and new york's mayor is unaware that he's not president of the united states or head of the fbi. >> i don't know why keep keeping the

country safe is the pinnacles at yale. >> trying to indoctrinate our can children. >> the only weapon he can see, a dr. seuss movie. then in indiana this republican state representative again insists the nation is under attack by the radical left wing tactical planned parenthood. >> the girl scouts of america. >> they're back. >> girl scout cookies time. >> all in a andall that and more on countdown. >> good evening, this is wednesday, february 22, 259 days until the 2012 presidential election. the president offered to slash the corporate tax rate today while raising revenues at the same time with rick santorum calling voters to scoot nice candidates record while struggling with more of his records surfacing today. the president not singing the blues over taxes after

vocalizing with bb king while the republican presidential field prepared for a debate in arizona with recent and not so recent statements hanging over their individual hits. starting with the president. president obama appearing for the groundbreaking of the african-american museum and calling for cutting the top rate from 28%--cutting the top rate to 28%. reducing the manufacturing rate to 25%. cutting corporate deductions and loopholes, and be cutting corporate deductions, ending tax breaks for companies outsource jobs, much of what was stated in the state of union address. timothy geithner said that it will help level the playing field for businesses and allow the government to collect revenue. the 2012 presidential race looking more like a level playing field to the white house

with a slight lean to the president. mr. obama edging romney in a poll with the caveat that is registered voters, not any form of likely voters. the margin error totals to 4%. he's doing better against santorum. mr. romney with a tax plan of his own. >> i'm going to lower rates across the board for all americans by 20%. >> or so he says. romney promising to cap all taxes by 28% lowering corporate tax rate to 25%. if that sound like a nod to the 1%. romney said he'll let middle class families keep their deductions. >> we'll cut back on that so we make sure that the top 1% keeps paying the current share they're paying or more. >> occupy mitt mitt. now under way. romney uttering spending cuts her see on tuesday. >> if you just cut. if all you're thinking about doing is cutting spending, while you cut spending you'll slow down the economy. >> i thought he would be hit by

lightening for saying that. it's written that it's hogwash. who is mitt mitt? rick santorum suggesting arizona voters would like to know. >> i encourage you to actually look at the records of the candidates, look at what the candidates are saying they're for. >> looking at what santorum says he's for brought us his 2008 comments on this news hour yet. that america was under attack by satan. santorum backing down from that today. >> i believe in good and evil. they want to dig up old speeches of talking to a religious group they can do that. >> good enough. this golden oldie he said they

have become the party of woodstock. it's about sexual freedom. the huffington post reporting in a 1995 philadelphia magazine article, the pro-life quoted at saying, i was basically pro-choice all my life until i ran for congress. also digging out a santorum campaign 1990 issue statement reading in part, while having no abortions would be ideal it is very difficult to criminalize any activity once a large portion of the company sees it as a right. and danger to the mother's health cannot be prohibited by the legislation. but hogan gively insisting in response i rick rick has always been pro-life. he ran as a pro-life candidate and got elected as a pro-life candidate. alan simpson had his own view on santorum. >> he's rigid and homophobic.

he believes in gays and lebanonance and mentioned about beatality and gays and lesbians. that's disgusting. >> g.o.p. primary voters may not agree with romney and santorum tying in michigan. leaving the president singing the blues a happy blues number at a white house performance last night along side the legends mick jagger and bb king ♪ come on ♪ baby don't you ♪ want to go ♪ sweet home chicago ♪ >> having previously heard a little of him pretending that he was al green reporters wanting to know when we might hear from that president again and getting a comment from jay

carney. >> i can't predict. maybe the next time at the inauguration next year. >> joining us on the dually tax plans i'm join with miss ms. anderson. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> the dead on arrival what was the point of it. >> it was well a well really a way for him to get a new talking point. this was mentioned in the state of the union speech. he had been mentioning raising taxes on oil and gas lowering the tax rate and lowering the tax rate on manufacturers. that also plays into something that rick santorum had been trying to do, focusing on manufacturers, in terms of lowering the tax rate and jump-starting a job creation here. you've seen a president who has been feeling good these last days. you see a president where the economic numbers the job numbers, the unemployment rate has declined.

i think is just furthering his message that he's on top of looking at job creation on top of this economy. and he really, i think takes away some of the momentum from some of the republican candidates who now have to fine a new talking point in terms of what they would do for the economy. >> and to that end romney's tax plan this analysis from a nonpartisan group says the plan he proposed would allow the wealthy to pay far less in taxes than they do. it appears to be paid for by unspecified cuts to social security and medicare. is this just to get red meat going? >> i think in some ways yes. you have seen a romney campaign that has been struggling to get it's footing. here is a campaign all about the economy, and he's like to face a president nominee they're likely to see a president with numbers that are decent. the economy is improving so they need to change their game. that's what we see mitt romney

doing. very interesting, as you pointed out, he's adopting the language of occupy wall street and looking a bit like a moderate saying we can't cut our way off of job creation. that's something that the tea party folks won't want to hear. he'll unveil a bit of this on friday and in michigan, and of course in a tight race there his own home state and locked in a dead-hit race there with rick santorum. >> do we have an idea why he he said that about cuts and the effect on the economy. it seems to me that the only way any republican could say that before the nomination was sewn up was that he believes the path was clear for him to have the nomination sewn up. >> we've seen mitt romney over these last many months. he does seem in some place to be all over the place in a lot of ways and issues. on the one hand he seems to be

run together right of newt gringrich and santorum and perry all over the place over these last many months, but this was an odd comment i think for him to make. this whole idea of cuts not being the way to growth. of course we know that's the entire republican on the far right, that's very much their mantra. that's the tea party mantra, we need to strengthen the government and jump start the economy. but i think you have a romney campaign, as much as he led a tight race in michigan, i think he's doing pretty well in arizona. i do think they're seeing santorum implode in the way that they did with newt gringrich. it was almost like they could sort of stand back, certainly they helped with all those negative ads but in some ways a newt gringrich didn't help his case for being the candidate because of all the things that he said about being a food-stamp president and all the same ways they see santorum doing the same thing. going into social issues, talking about contraception. talking about the devil.

i don't know how many presidential hopefuls in the last 25, 50 years talk about the devil. i grew up in the south and i've been to many a baptist church on sunday morning. lots of talk about the devil then but not on the presidential stump. this is something that he thinks will gin up his base, this far right, but you feel like santorum had that base already so why he feels like he needs to go there is just i don't know understand why he feels why he needs to go there. >> i would guess the terrible fear that satan is running as a third party candidate. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> let's look at some questions who must be troubling republicans tonight. who is mitt romney and rick santorum and why do fewer people care now than two months ago. for that i'm joined by marcos, good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> let's look at internal and external.

internal first. i was basically pro-choice all my life until i ran for congress. hard cases abortion hard cases cannot be criminalized. a spokesman said that he always ran as a pro-life candidate. denial denial, denial. this could deflate that about a balloon. >> i'm willing to give the republicans the benefit of the doesn't that they get crazier as they get older. rick santorum gets nuttier by the day. the denial, as we know rick santorum is as religious as he says he is that there is actually a commandment that addresses that sort of thing. >> the external problem. sexual freedom which he seems to be totally against in all forms. is that what the g.o.p. fear when they worry about santorum winning the nomination, there will be something so off-putting that there be no chance of a

democrat or independent running for a republican candidate and you literally have to have satan running as a third party to bring anybody over to your side? >> yeah, absolutely. rick santorum really bottom line is uncollect electable. he lost by 27 points in pennsylvania. the last time he ran for re-election, the guy isn't exact exactly the strongest election candidate. it seems like he was running as dana carver's church lady which is funny if you're doing an "snl" skit but not if you're running as president of the united states. >> is he going to have to spend the rest of the primaries trying to live that down and if and when he gets the nomination, what the democrats could use with that quote. >> it depends what mitt romney shows up that day. if it's the mitt romney who forgot that he's running in a republican primary, and he's talking about no spending cuts

and a prerogative tax structure and talking about the 1% and the 99%, well, maybe not so much. but he still has to run a republican primary. half the time he's talking about all the spending cuts he needs to make, non-defense spending cuts. so with this--i don't know if it really effects him moving forward, what it does is really reinforces the fact that he has no core, no ideological grounding, no principles, no mooring nothing on any issue or ethical concern. >> lastly, he was up on the president by a couple. but that's just register voters, which is a popularity contest. but another had him over romney and santorum. they've been tracking g.o.p. republican interests in the

presidential race. 40% of the republicans are dissatisfied with all the candidates, in other words, the choice. in december 48% said they had a great interest in following this race now it's down to 40%. as much as it's grown more and more entertaining for people who are standing on the sidelines especially people with a left of center point of view apparently there has been an attrition rate with the number of republican candidates. >> i don't think the polls are that off. the exact number by be off by a point or two but the trend lines are consistent. mitt romney was competitive two months ago and is becoming less and less competitive particularly in battleground states. what we found out the longer this drags out the less people like rick santorum, the less they like mitt romney, and the better obama looks in comparison, not to mention the money being spent. the romney spent $28 million in january alone. the more he keeps up and the

more he spends that money we're actually encouraging democrats to vote in open primaries say like michigan, north dakota, tennessee and vermont the longer this goes on, the better it will be for democrats this fall. >> you know you have a president who is willing to sing. >> he's feeling cocky. >> but he's not a depressed man relative to his future job. it's always a pleasure. >> pleasure, thanks so much. >> a confused situation in virginia where the state may have removed the transvaginal probe provision that we told you about on its is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two-term governor. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his

groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. i found a new way to get my profile out there. check me out. everybody says i've got a friendly disposition and they love my spinach dip. 5 foot ten. still doing a little exploring... on it. my sign is sagittarius i'm into spanish cheese, my hairline is receding but i'm getting a weave. (falsetto chorus) getting a weave.

who wants some ronald tonight!? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

>> is there a partial victory over virginia's governor and the new restrictive abortion laws that would mandate transvaginal exams? or did they just rename the exam. how muslims the mayor says it's his job to protect not the city but the country. to paraphrase, who would serve this country better, i. losing it over a dr. seuss character. and a senator who mocks the girl scouts. he says the scouts are the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love

that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two term governor. >>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. >> as republican war on women's rights marchs on, all eyes have turned to virginia where that new bill mandated for a woman to receive an abortion she must undergo an procedure that some call state-sanctioned rape. now the law does not promote the procedure but they call it a

gestational exam. withlate yesterday a vote on the bill was delayed as the governor called the legislatures together to amend the language. this afternoon they announceed rye touch faintly that a deal has been reached. i'm asking the general assembly to state in this legislation that only a transabdominal or external ultrasound will be required to satisfy the requirements to determine gestational age. should a doctor determine that any form of ultrasound is necessary that will be an issue for the doctor and the patient the government will have no role in that medical decision. the bill with the new amendment quickly introduced on the house floor passed 65-32. while the amendment removed the warding mandating the transvaginal ultrasound the need for the procedure remains because in the early stages, a pregnancy, usually is not able to retrieve accurate images from

the fetus. still images are required to obtain an abortion. undergo a transvaginal ultrasound or wait until for the fetus to be seen by the external ultrasound. the bill does not mandate the procedure but the woman is still compelled to undergo it. this crazy ass bill with the new amendment will come up for a vote in this crazy ass senate on friday. joining me, irene. thanks for coming in. >> thanks, keith. >> from what you can tell is this in fact, this whole dance about allowing governor mcdonald to say i took the mean tv word out of this equation but there is still the process is still necessitated by what they're setting up here. >> honestly, to begin with, this is a procedure that is not medically necessary even if you're doing it through the abdominal wall even if you're not doing a transvaginal ultrasound. this is to humiliate women and

try to get them to change their minds. >> intimidate them. >> bully them. but this word has caused a lot of trouble for the republican. this bill has passed in a lot of states but that word never caught on. if you do have to produce the images then it's hard to fulfill it. the bottom line, it's already trying to get the doctor to do something that is beyond what the doctor would normally have at their discretion. some clinics already do have elective ultra sounds. but shoving in the doctor to the woman. >> in the new language the governor is saying we're not going to mandate this, but the doctor will have to mandate this. the responsibility is shunted away from the state even though the state is demanding it. it's a perfect--it is a definition of a catch 22. you don't need this exam. you can't make the doctor do it but you don't have to have the results of the exam. >> currently it doesn't make sense. it's not clear what is going to

happen once the senate gets it. the point is mc mcdonald has had to be on defense. this is the man who has passed legislation that was intended to shut down abortion clinics that performed abortions in the first trimester. nobody knew that. now he has to back down and we'll see what happens in the senate. >> i was going to ask you if there was a victory contained in all this. or a positive. for years legislatures have been doing things like this. is it all because of a word or a tipping point where people just sat back and said, this is crazy? >> look at the last few weeks. we've had this susan g koman debacle. the legislation trying to take away birth control access to women. this is adding up and people are starting to realize the original language to these ultrasound bills, the confirmed consent as if it a woman doesn't understand

that the fetus could grow into a child. they're saying this is not an informed consent. this is about controlling women and that's what ties together in the past few weeks. >> is there a sense starting with koman and the hearing that you're referencing, is there a sense up to this point women who were in favor of women's rights believed that there were compromises and nuances and that the right was going for restrictions or complications or things that any woman with her mind made up, it wouldn't matter to them anyway, to a realization in the last month that it is an attempt to push things back to zero. push things back to 1925. >> when you go against cancer screenings, when you're going against birth control access, suddenly you realize this is a concerted plan and these incremental things they're doing they're trying to turn back the clock for women and also that finally republicans are being honest about how they feel about women. just in the debate about this bill the kinds of things that republican legislatures and

republican commentators said about rationale behind this bill you've already been penetrated once. what's the problem. all these moments are moments of truth when you realize what their actual intentions are which are not about saving babies. they're really about punishing women. >> and the idea that you've already been penetrated once, what's your problem is one step away from saying is one step of defending rape. >> john stewart was saying with the same people, these same people who like to say that taxes are rape. they like to use rape all the time except when it uses actual penetrate. >> thanks for coming in. >> thank you so much. >> for the really deep thinkers of the far right the enemy is not

[ laura ] maine is known for its lighthouses, rocky shore and most importantly its lobster. it's the tastiest, the sweetest, the freshest. nobody can ever get enough. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ laura ] hot, right out of the shell. i love lobster. i'm laura mclennan from spruce head, maine, and i sea food differently.

>> yet another layer to the new york city police department conviction that it has a right to target muslims not only in

new york but adjoining states. first, born the staff announceer john pardo on the job since 1944 and still live, afounding before turning 94 years old. his famous announcement, his fake announcement that says weekend update is brought to you by pussy whip, the dessert topping for cats. time marchs on. we begin as we always do with bridges peopling up. there goes the the explosion. inconnecting ohio and virginia, it had fall no one a state of disrepair. now if you need to travel it,.

>> adele has now won the mastercard british card album of the year. they didn't allow her enough time to make a speech. >> i'm so so proud to be here and i'm so proud to be in the room with all of you. >> i can't believe i'm about to cut you off. >> i'm so sorry. >> do not cut me off. i'll say you goodbye. >> hey, it's mia. albums sold, 7.3 million. flipping off the people who gave you the mastercard of the year award that didn't allow to you make a speech, priceless. now in sports, doing the intro to the big dayton xavier rifle deciding they should do the intro from the ground. down goes fraser. despite the stool collapsing

underneath him. mr. bates maintains his composure. and it was later revealed that a demolition crew from steubinville had blown up up the stool. templar is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two-term governor. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here waiting for it.

who wouldn't want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i'll take it. i'll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain.

>> we havee known that the

new york police department thinks studying muslim is probable cause to monitor monitor americans. the nypd has not just been monitoring new yorkers, but they authorized convert surveillance of muslims students in 16 universities throughout the northeast, and the mayor is branding those who disagree with his idea of regional pelosiing citizen not protecting the country. at campuses of yale, university of pennsylvania, others, plain clothed police officers monster blogs and even white water rafting trips on monday, i'm write to go state in the strongest possible terms that police swans based on religion, nationality or peacefully expressed opinions are to ex-he against value and the united

states. outraged that it would go against new york's finest. mayor michael bloomberg. >> i don'twe have to keep this country safe. this is a dangerous place. make no mistake about it. it's very cute to go and blame everybody and say we should stay away from anything that smacks of intelligence gathering. >> how about just sticking to your own damn city. the aclu and the new york civil liberty union is calling for an investigation. thanks for your time, and gone gradalations on the award. >> thanks for having me, keith. >> get to the profiling part of this in a moment. but i'm concerned about the question. how is the nypd nationalize any covert work outside of new york state?

>> well, i don't think they have to justify it to anybody. they just do it. and they go where they see fit. we've been reporting on this since august, and they have not been working covertly in new jersey. they've gone as far as boston. in fact, they've gotten caught. >> yes does the nypd seem to draw either literally or figuratively a line anywhere? who can investigate and where they can investigate them? >> no, we found in our reporting, in the documents that we have that the nypd feels they can investigate anybody. >> is the premise, are the students at the 16 universities some how connected to the city of new york directly or is that not even a requirement. >> i don't think that's a requirement. clearly from a documents that we've seen and the people we've interviewed who took part in these programs a requirement was that they were muslim. >> i'm going to guess that the aclu requests for self investigation is just going to be ignored by the mayor who can say what he said.

does any other law enforcement agency feel enough like its own toes have been stepped on by this that it would encourage investigating the nypd? >> well, i men this has been brought to the attention of the justice department. congressman holt wrote a letter to the justice department and i believe approximately 34 members of congress has asked for an investigation. we are not clear if the justice department is doing anything about this. it doesn't appear to be any oversight in new york city. the mayor is essentially accountable to no one. there had been a few city council members who said we need to do something they won't even plug in the idea to the inspector general, but it doesn't seem it will go anywhere anywhere. >> it's filled with people who are vieying to succeed the mayor. they won't rock the boat if

their own hide is on the rope. there is another sub basement involved in it. do you think this is it or is there even more to go? >> we've got--we're still investigating. we're still talking to people. we're still looking at documents. i mean, just as the new york story demonstrated today, i mean mean, the madrid did that and the mayor cory booker, had no idea they did that. he was outraged. even the governor of new jersey didn't know about it. when he was the stop law enforcer in new jersey. >> summarize that. >> the nypd, their demographics unit, paul brown the police commissioner denied existing, went out and mapped newark, the documents released today they mapped newark, nassau county, and suffolk county on long island and they cataloged

muslim businesses, mosques and they mapped them as well. >> huh goodness. and we're all paying for it in new york. adam goldman, investigative reporter of the associated press press. con gladalations on the award and series and. >> thank you very much. >> perhaps the most disturbing fact of that paranoia, there will be people who hear about that nypd program and will feel good about it, and then join the rest of us in dropping our jaws at the news that one commentator believes that a dr. seuss movie is harming the country and the

you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

>> which is the greatest threat, a dr. seuss character or girl scouts of america. it depends on which right wing group you ask. rrenttv