[ ♪ theme ♪ ] [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> good morning, and welcome to the full-court press. peter ogburn sitting in for bill press today. welcome to august. who says nothing happens in august? a big win in texas for the tea party candidate, ted cruz defeating david dewhurst in a bit of a shocker. we will have the details coming up on this august 1st show. plus dick cheney says sarah palin was a mistake. sarah palin responds.

we will hear her response in just a few moments. also today, it's chick-fil-a appreciation day as decreed by america's number 1 craig: mike huckabee. should you go to chick-fil-a? we will talk about that in a few moments. here is your current news update with lisa ferguson. lisa, good morning. >> good morning, peter. good to see you in the hot seat. as he just mentioned, the tea party is getting stronger in texas as yesterday's big battle for the republican senate no, ma'am nuptial. it was a closely watched run-off vote with dueewhurst as the establishment favorite but newcomer ted cruz pulled off the upset winning 5530 to 45%. >> we were at 2% in the polls. and they said i couldn't do it. and you know what? they were right. i couldn't do it. but you could. >> a big show of grassroots support helped a win with more than 1 million texans showing up

to the poems. a surprising turnout considering the mid summer vote. cruz is up against democratic state rep paul sadler but texas is a reliably red state so we can expect cruz to take the senate seat. he is repacing kay bailey hutchinson. think progress is coming out with things everyone should know about cruz. he has intellect rivalled by poor judgment. george soros has been wanting to gut social security and campaigning on the fact he made it easier to kill illegal immigrants. speaking of illegal immigration, a district judge will run in a case against arizona joe awayrapiao and said sheriff officers arehad used ethnicity.

we will see you after the break. see you then. we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... septic disasters are disgusting and costly, but avoidable. the rid-x septic subscriber program helps prevent backups by sending you monthly doses right to your door so you will never forget to maintain your system. sign up at rid-x.com.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: karl rove accuses [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> happy august, august 1st, wednesday. it's the full court press. peter ogburn sitting in for bill this morning. thank you so much for being here live around the country, nationally syndicated on your progressive radio station and live on current tv. so pleased to be with you here today. what a big show we have coming up for you. we have chad cranton, our buddy in studio later on in the show. plus we will be joined by peter

welch. and boy, i am just thrilled to be here, back on t.v. i am ably assisted on the 1s and 2s by dan henning. mr. henning, how are you? >> immigrate. >> thank you for being here? >> an honor really. >>. >> stevie b webb? >> a little bit hopeful. >> dressed to the 9s as always? >> absolutely. >> brogue kick. what is that? >> i will show you later. >> thank you. >> you are welcome. >> and our videographer is cyprian bowlding will say hello and wave. we don't let him on mic. he keeps us looking good on t.v. we have a big show coming up. and some sad news overnight. i woke up this morning to the braking news alerts that we have lost gore vvidal, a legendary gay man out in the open way before it was acceptable to be out in the open. he passed away last night at the age of 86 due to complications

from pneumonia. he will be he will be remembered for his plays. but more than anything else, he will be remembered for this fight that he had with william f. buckley on t.v. you will have to listen because they do fight. and they are talking over each other. but vidal said something to buckley that he doesn't like. listen to william buckley's response. >> this is a novelty in chicago that is too bad but i assume the point of the american democracy -- >> as you can express -- >> shut up. >> no. >> some people will and the answer is they were well treated by people who ostracized them i am for os tra sizing other people who shoot american marines. >> all you can think of is yourself. failing that, i can only say we can have -- >> listen. >> now. >> now, listen, you queer. >> you will see stay plastered.

>> no. back to his pornography. any illusions in the last war. >> i will [. >> that sounds like bill press and bob novak on crossfire. >> crossfire right there. >> look. aside from the hate speech call somebody a queer, you don't see that on t.v. any more, just a real spirited. he said i am going to punch you in the face. >> it's pretty direct. >> that's pretty in-your-face. i like that. >> very impressive. >> i could see more of that on t.v., save the hate speech of course. >> sure. >> speaking of hate speech it is august 1st. the dereed day chick-fil-a appreciation day, a day which i have a lot of things to say about as a life-long fan of chick-fil-a. we are going to get into all of that. but first: >> this is the full-court press. >> on this wednesday, other headlines making news record-breaking history for

michael phelps last night, the swimmer is the first in history to win gold in london, 19th olympic medal over all and 15th gold. an hour earlier he won silver in the 20 ohm meter butterfly. phelps has three more events to swim in. he broke the record once held by lotsinivia. >> greatest olympian ever? >> michael phelps. the greatest olympian ever. you can make some of the arguments like carl lewis, moses, the fact he racked up that many medals and was that dominant for so long greatest ever. >> no more rapp for snoop dogg. the newsition now known as snoop lion produced a new album, the

regea, inspired by the marijuana. >> that's what he was inspired by. >> he announced yesterday that rap music was no longer a challenge to him. he thought he was bob material reincarnated. the new album with a documentary called reincarnated day because at the film festival. i watched the trailer for this film. nothing but him smoking weed. >> that's the thing. the only thing he is better at than rap is smoking pot. >> absolutely. >> i would love to hear some of that music if you can get your hands on that, mr. henning. >> we will look for it. the original cat woman is not a fan of the dark knight rises. julie nemar. >> i don't remember her because i was not at million years old. >> the original t.v. series back in 1966, she spoke with yahoo news saying she did not christopher noland's take saying the movie is too dark and they

had more fun with it. that the criticism, she did think ann hathaway did a superb job. >> she was a great cat woman. i see her point to an extent. it's like my kids really want to go see the dark knight rises because it's batman and there is no way in hell they can go see that movie. there is just no way. >> you would let them watch the original batman t.v. series. >> that's what i am saying. i kind of see her point because batman is a comic book character. kits go ahead into it. you can't go take them to see the christopher noland movie. no way. >> i thought about it. i had to go see it first. >> that's what i did. that was my rule this summer because, my kids really like the avengers spiderman and then they liked batman and i had to go audition the avengers and spiderman which i took my kids to see even though spiderman was terrible but then i saw dark knight rises.

there is no way. way too violent. don't take your kids to see it. it is 13 minutes past the hour on this august 1st. so we have talked about this before. we talked about it last week. mike huckabee american's number 1 christian fighting the fight for chick-fil-a. his take is that chick-fil-a is a good wholesome american chain and just because they are anti-gay and don't like gay people and don't like divorce and base all of their teachings and business model on things of the bible, that we should not boycott chick-fil-a. here is how huck abee addressed it. >> i decided enough was enough when i heard all of this incredible hate speech being directed toward the cathay family who are the owners of the chick-fil-a recall chain because they support traditional marriage. they don't force it in their stores. they don't, you know, insist that upon customers or employees. it's just their personal

beliefs. last time i checked, america was a place where people could have a belief and express it personally. >>. >> he is absolutely right. america is a place where you can have a belief and express it personally. that, i don't have a problem with. but to say that people saying that they don't want to eat at chick chick-fil-a is hate speech? >> a bit of a stretch. huckabee goes on. >> the activist gay community has just gone crazy about this. and called for national boycotts and essentially trying to put them out of business, which is a form of comic bullying and if it engaged in hate speech toward the company and specifically toward the company i have ever seen. very undeserved. chick-fil-a wants to sell chicken. they don't get into the politics that much. now, they have bug drug into it by these groups that want to destroy their business and some of us decided, you know, we ought to stand up with them. i said let's have an appreciate day for chick-fil-a. wednesday, august the 1st.

just go eat at chick-fil-a. not doing a political rally, not having a big bunch of signs printed. just go eat. >> here is a little bit of history. chick-fil-a has always been and owned up to the fact that they are a religious type restaurant which, you know what? fine. i don't care because i never found them to be excessively preachy. if you walk in, it says never open on sunday, always closed. i kind of respect that they say if you work for us, no matter what, you will have sundays off. you will at least get that day off. you can spend it with your family which is what they encourage you to do. fine. but not to mention, can you imagine the amount of business they lose out on. there have been many sundays i have woke up and say, i would kill for a fried chicken biscuit now and can't get one at chick-fil-a. the huffington post uncovered how chick-fil-a has been

spending their charity dollars because they give to a lot of different causes. one of them, one of of their causes they took up was gay marriage and they gave about a million dollars to groups that fought to keep same section-sex couples from getting married. at that time, my wife and i, because at the time, my kids were younger, and they are still young but they were too young to grasp the concept of gay marriage at this point. we said, no more chick-fil-a. i cannot overstate how much i loved chick-fil-a growing up. we had chick-fil-a. i grew up in south carolina. it's big in the south. we ate chick-fil-a a lot which may tell you something about how i was a young fat boy eating chick-fil-a. we have a chick-fil-a in my

neighborhood. we used to go there all the time especially for the kids. my kids' school had fundraisers there. it's great. no more. we went to no school fundraisers held at chick-fil-a. we have been doing that about a year and a half. we knew they were fighting to keep gay people from getting married. that being said, it has never been as crystal clear as it is now that they are wildly anti-gay anti-gay, anti-anything but biblical. to recap, here is the quote from dan cathay the president of chick chick-fil-a in an interview when he was asked if they were -- that they had been accused of being anti-gay and anti-gay marriage. he said, guilty as charged. and his quote is we are very much supportive of the family the biblical definition of the family unit. we are family-owned business a

family-led business, and this is weird -- and we are married to our first wives. we give god thanks for that. now, what a weird thing to say, aside from the fact he is saying guilty as charged that we hate gay people but we are still married to our first wives. that, to me, is weird. what i have seen in the past couple of days, i don't get on face book. some people found me from high school and stuff like that on face facebook. people i went to high school with, they are idiots. so many people like we support chick-fil-a. how dare you try and put them out of business with this activism? no. it's not activism. mike huckabee says the activist gay community. i am not part of an activist gay community. i am a father of two young children that i would like to

raise to do the right thing. and i personally cannot live with giving my money to chick-fil-a knowing that that money will then go to fight anti-gay causes. it's not an ideological decision for me more than anything. we can use that as a teachable moment, and we can say, hey, you shouldn't go to chick-fil-a because they, you know are anti-gay. >> that's one thing. it's another thing to give them your money and that money that you give them goes directly to fight against the cause that you believe in? that, i am not okay with. should you go to chick-fil-a just because you disagree with them? 866-55-press. >> that's our phone number. 86 i-557377. does it matter to you? do you think that we should be putting politics with our fast food? it should come as no surprise that in dofin alabama,

bustling met 2r07 list jim brad burn chimes in, business is great. >> in dolfin and the alabama area, we have had cite an increase in business last week as well as today. >> that couldshould come as a surprise to absolutely no one. in dolfin, we are selling more chicagoen sandwiches now getting all kind of businesses because doeth in alabama, they hate the gay people. can you honestly go to chick-fil-a and keep a clean conscience? >> my question to you at 866-55-press, on today, chick-fil-a appreciation day, i say stay away from chick-fil-a. let's put it on a bumper sticker. stay away from chick-fil-a. i am peter ogburn in for bill press on current tv. we will be right back. >> heard around country, seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. the highest amount of jobs. those are facts.

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joining us. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me, man.

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>> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show, new on current tv. >> i like that music, mr. henning. crank that up in the headphones. i am like jazee, beastie boys. peter ogburn sitting in for bill press here on the full-court press on current tv. we are talking chick-fil-a. today is chick-fil-a appreciation day as declared by mike huckabee. taking your calls cat 866-55-press. 866-55-7377. should you go to chick-fil-a? should you boycott chick-fil-a? let's go to martha in bluffton south carolina, my home state. martha, western carolina welcome. thanks for being here. >> thank you. good morning, everybody. i love your show. >> thank you very much. south carolina not necessarily

known as a hotbed of acceptance. >> i am old. i am white. i am christian but i do not believe that people should think that god put man lying with man as lying with woman in the bible. if they believe that they believe god is a lesbian and hates men. >> what's your logic on that, martha? >> all right. think about when the bible was written. who had rights? man. who did not have rights? women. so why would they even think of putting woman lying with woman as with man? right? >> that's a good point, martha. thank you for that call. let's go on to kevin in west palm beach florida. welcome to the full-court press. >> good morning, sir. thank you for taking my call. >> thank you for calling. >> my pleasure. i have long been a patron of chick-fil-a. i like their food.

and i have been a supporter of their policy of always been closed on sunday the i think it's a good policy because i think that sunday is a family day. me being a christian. >> sure. >> but i am totally against dan cathay's abuse of anti-gay marriage. i have numerous friends who happen to be gay. i, myself am heterosexual. i have many friends, both male and female who are members of the gay and lesbian community. i was actually invited to participate nat grand opening of a chick-fil-a that is going to be open up down the street from me in rural palm beach florida. i notified the officials the other day that i am not going to be participating. >> good for you. >> in their grand opening, and they will not be seeing any of my business because although i do support their views, i feel

that chick-fil-a does not have the right to dictate to people as to how they should live their lives. >> good now, kevin. >> it doesn't matter. we are all one people. and if chick-fil-a wants to go ahead and sink themselves by discounting 25% of their known customer business, so be it. they will not be seeing any of my business. i am a proud liberal even though i am a christian, and chick-fil-a will not see my business. i will give it to mcdonald's instead. >> good for you to take a stand. he makes a good point. there is no way to blur the line. why would chick-fil-a blur the line? you can be a good christian and give your workers the sunday off and say spend it with your family. if you choose to go to church, that's fine. but to come out and say, we are guilty as charged on anti-gay measures, it's wrong. it's just wrong. don't give chick-fil-a your money. >> this is the bill press show.

system collapses and then they will have achieved their end of basically shutting down the government. they're anti-government which her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv.

can i say that?

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> radio meets television the bill press show, now on current tv. >> welcome back to the full-court press. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill today on this august 1st, '33 minutes past the hour. by the way, check out our website. bill press show.com. bill press show.com. you can find out what we are talking about today. you can also buy your copy of bill's latest book "the obama hate machine." we are tweeting at bpshow. check that out there. i am tweeting at peterogburn. find us there. see what's going on today's show. it complements your listening and viewing experience nicely if i do say so myself.

it is wednesday, and as every wednesday, we can check in with eliot spitzer, the host of viewpoint on current tv every week day night at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. he is up early, but he is not up on t.v. >> i am sure you can make that mistake. >> thank you so much for being here. last week, we had you in studio. you were in washington. you were on your way to go and see some freshly grilled geitner in front of congress. how did that go? >> he wasn't grilled that much. it was kind of sushi. nobody put a flame to him. a couple of hard questions from one or two members of congress. it was interesting, democratic side of the aisle was covering for him and saying we don't want this to turn into an opportunity to attack the president and the republicans not being that tough on you know, corporate mal fees f

/* malfesance. we suspect the fed knew about libor and should have done more. nobody wanted to play hardball and do a tough cross examination on that issue. >>. >> nobody has been on top of this if you are not watching eliot spitzer, please watch. i watch and get an excellent primer on this whole libbor scandal. >> thank you. >> the think is libor -- you heard my say that add nausium. i don't want could to repeat it. it's amit metaphor for everything that has gone on in the marketplace for the last 20 years. there is the notion of self regulation. it failed. the opportunity to commit huge fraud. the regulators don't do much. we pretend we have caught it and wring our hands and go back to normal. not surprisingly, the capital markets don't work, huge fraud, major harm to the economy. >> was anything done at this hearing? did we get anything out of this? >> yeah. we got a nice couple of pats on the back to tim for good public

service over the past couple of years because it was probably his last time testifying there before before president obama's first term runs it's course and he is not coming back for a second term. time guiterrez has said that -- tim geitner has already said that. each member gets 5 minutes. by the time they are done introducing themselves, 10 seconds left for the wits. they are not meaningful opportunities for public airing of deep facts. what you do have sometimes are investigative committees that drop a lot of subpoenas and put out good error reports. senator levin has done a great job on finance stuff. on this one, we didn't advance the ball a lot but i think in due course, we will find out that the new york fed, you know, like many of the other agencies should have seen it, probably knew and didn't do. >> so you say in advance, too much on this. what's the next step? how do we move forward? >> under gary againstler, it has

been a surprise, if there is one agency that has picked up the mantle of asking hard questions, it's the cftc. gary ginzler is pushing this issue. whether they will dig deeply at the new york fed remains to be seen. i called for an outside investigator because none of the agencies can investigate themselves. the fed needs somebody to say what happened here as a matter of protecting us next time around maybe they will put out a good report. maybe congress will. it will be two years from now. it takes congress that long to do things. i don't know where justice is on this. i don't know where the criminal division is. i don't know why, you know, there are e-mails back and forth between, among the different banks that are sufficient to make very quick criminal case bring it. that brings pressure on the individual up the chain. they should go quickly on this. >> talking to current tv's eliot spitzer, host of "viewpoint" every night at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. let's talk about a story we got into a little bit yesterday. a new report by nbc news shows

that top ceos of top-earning companies around the country are donating in big numbers record numbers, to presidential campaigns and they are out spending to mitt romney's campaign to 0 bam a's campaign 4 to 1? >> right. >> why would they do that? >> why? well, you are just suggesting that this is corporate profits are way up and they have never had a better four years, they should let that interfere with their ideological bias? >> you took the words out of my mouth. >> i think the correlation is folks are more likely to have a swiss bank account are about 10 to 1 more likely to support mitt romney. a link here? i don't know. look. there is this we struggle because we try to argue rationality with folks and say your profits are up. the economics of george w. bush and what mitt romney has has failed. you know that. hence don't you want to support

what barack obama is doing and you get a blank stare back? he is going to raise my rates by 3% or 2%. therefore, i can't. we kind of say wait a minute. this doesn't make sense. you know, that's what we are up against. there is sort of like you are running into a brick wall with a lot of groups that i and you would have thought logically would recognize the historical record and say you know what? barack obama has done a good job in a tough situation. >> it's so sad that it's become sol so politicized. i hate to sound wistful about common sense ruling here but i mean... >> you and i look at the results also in the texas primary and we say, you know, you take a guy like ted cruz and you see some of the things he says and once again, it's a repeat of the tea party mantras and we shrug and say do people believe that? get government out of my medicare. slogans. >> we did mention ted cruz did win his primary. a lot of people thinking that

the tea party's power was maybe on the way out, but maybe not. >> let me tell you you are right. about about six, seven months ago, there was a sense they had flexed their muscles and that boehner had paid a big price for it in terms of the inability to move things in his own chamber but that they were dissipating f they get a toehold in the senate. who knows which way the senate goes come november. if there are a critical mass of tea party senators who can do to the senate what the tea party caucus did to the house, suddenly that chamber becomes one more argument for gridlock where things won't get done but it may be polled far right. imagine a mitch mcconnell as a senate majority lighteader held hostage. >> he is not aanyone notifying enough. >> think what this could be. this is really not a pretty picture. >> that's terrifying. mitt romney is wrapping up his

european vacation. it hasn't exactly gone according to plan? has it? >>. what was the point of the trip? was it meant to be dumb and dumber overseas? you couldn't figure out. let's go tolondon and embarrass the brits. let's go to the middle east and make sort of unnecessary cultural ethnic comments that advances nothing. and then let's just gratuitously use vulgarity in front of the mic. i don't know. >> what is he thinking? by the way, if you go to england, which in terms of 2k34r0789 diplomic trips is a lay-up. how do you go to england and piss them off. >> we talk the same language. they drink more tea than we do but we get their culture. you don't need to do much more than say thank you. we know we beat you in a war a couple of hundred years ago but

we like each other and everything is good. you don't slap them in the face and is a you are not ready for the olympics. it's hard to get. here is the reality. we had a bit of fun in the media and the public kind of winced at all of this. it will be forgotten friday morning when the job numbers come out and economics is what this campaign is all about. and so i think even though this has been a distraction, it's not a terribly important one come the end of the day. >> we will see how it plays out. current tv's eliot spitzer, host of "viewpoint" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eliot, thank you for joining u.s. always a pleasure. >> that's eliot spitzer hear life on the full-court press. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill. we have been talking about chick-fil-a. today is chick-fil-a appreciation day. should you go? chris in atlanta, georgia, down in the hotbed of chick-fil-a. i believe that's their home city. right, chris? >> honestly, i do not know. i'm sorry about that.

>> i am pretty sure it is. what's your take on this? >> well, you know i am for whatever. if people want to, you know, i am, you know, not gay or anything or -- but if people want to get married and that's their choice i think this country gives us the right to do that. but what i was going to say is if we are going to -- or if people should boycott chick-fil-a, then shouldn't they also boycott companies like apple or any company that outsources? i agree, you know, kind of i see what you are saying, but, also i think that boycotting is a little too far because even if they do use their funds to -- for anti--gay, i mean i still think if we are going to do that, then people should be boycotting companies that outsource. >> let me be clear because i hear your point and i do think that it could be a slippery slope. i think that it is our duty to inform people that -- how we

feel in what chick-fil-a is doing. i have made a personal decision. i am not asking you, stay away from chick-fil-a. i am telling you i cannot in good conscience say that i can give my money to chick-fil-a, knowing where that money is going. i am not demanding that we have a nationwide boycott. i am saying if you do i think that you might not be fully aware of history. i think you are on the wrong side of history is what i true am trying to say. 866-55-press. for example, really quickly, amazon.com, they are donating money to fight for marriage e quality. i am with that. if you don't like that, maybe you shouldn't give your money to amazon. i have no problem doing that. i am for that. 866-55-press, 44 minutes past the hour, peter ogburn sitting in for bill press on the full-court press. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the

bill press show. >> and you think it doesn't affect you? think again. >> this court has proven to be the knowing, delighted accomplice in the billionaires' purchase of our nation. >> and you think it doesn't affect you? think again.

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[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> this is the bill press show. >> welcome back to the full-court press, the bill press show, peter ogburn in for bill press today on this wednesday, august 1st. thank you so much for being here. i appreciate it. we are taking your calls at 866-55-press. today is chick-fil-a appreciation day a maid-up event that by mike huckabee. if you want to talk about a pack

of goobers leading this fight, mike huck aby, rick santorum and sarah palin all tweeting their support of chick-fil-a. say no more. i am sold. yeah. let's go with dumb america and side with them. 49 minutes past the hour. let's check in with andy in wilmington delaware. welcome to the show. >> good morning, peter. i think people are confused about the first amendment rights in america. all it does is protect you from being arrested by the government by what you say. there is no law on the books to protect someone from a normal human reaction to an insult or hate speech. i won't set foot in chick-fil-a again. i have a step-brother who is gay, a great guy. that has nothing to do with it. i think we didn't ask this guy enough questions. i would like to here what his opinion is on interracial marriage and. >> that is an excellent point.

>> that's an excellent point because, you know, he seem to date everything on the bible. i am not a christian. i am not offended by christians. i am just not a christian. if he wants to run a business that says, we are going to be closed on sundays because we want our employees to spend time with their family, they don't say, you have to go to church to work here. they do push the religion thing. that doesn't offendmoo. what does is saying we are taking your money and going to give something to you that you continue disagree with more like fighting gay marriage. it doesn't make me an activist like mike huckabee says. it makes me a stand-up person. look, i can use all of the points i can get. let's go to darren in norton massachusetts. karen, welcome to the full-court press. >> good morning, peter. >> good morning. >> thank you for your energy and your passion. you know, today, i am calling this mike huckabee appreciation

day. what i love about the other side, which is just the people that don't agree with me i guess if we wait long enough they out themselves. this issue with chick-fil-a spending their money to fight gay marriage goes to so many things. anybody like your caller recently, i see his point about the outsourcing. but that's not a protection. >> that's not a protection. this is about equality for everyone. i am a white 59-year-old woman that had a childhood and an education. i have had a cakewalk of a life. i want people to have the same protection i have. yes, and i have a gay brother. i would ask everyone: what if your child was gay? what if you were gay?

you know, put yourself, walk in those shoes. and i just -- i just love it that we have a president that's actually come out and said, okay. we needy quality for everyone. >> excellent points karen. gay people -- i will use dolly parton's quote by the way who you may or may not think would associate herself with the gay community. she says she is all for gay marriage. gay people should have the same right to be as miserable as we are to get married. why do you care? why do you want to fight this? you look at barack obama. he evolved. he changed on gay marriage. the democratic party will have gay marriage, marriage equality as part of their party platform. this tide has turned for many many, many people. i, myself, was raised in a family very conservative and my

parents to this day think that it's wrong to have gay marriage. i mean for a man to lie down with another man. it's out dated. it's wrong. it's gone. it's not coming back. it's over and done with. and if you want to give your money to dinosaurs like chick-fil-a who want to continue to fight progress be my guest. i just think you are a dope. i think you are making a mistake. 866-55-press is our phone number. find us online tweeting at bp show and tweeting at peterogburn. let me let me know what you think about chick-fil-a appreciation day. should you go? should you give them your money? i say no. the full court press. peter ogburn in for bill courtfull-court press. >> heard around the country, seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] what it means is there are bigger class sizes and there are

fewer teachers to serve these students and to work with parents and making sure their joining us. >> my pleasure. fruit just got cooler. fruit on one side, cool on the other. new ice breakers duo. a fruity, cool way to break the ice.

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ]

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> it's true. we do take your e-mails on any topic at any time at billpressshow.com. you can also give us your comments in the chat room at current.com. find us there and chime in with all of the other full-court pressers and you might get your comment on the air. here is one from brian worth. d press, that's the stench of desperation and your liberal bed wetters wreak of it. it's embarrassing how you

continue to be brainwashed by your liberal presence. you are pissing in the wind. >> bpressed. thanks, brian. two worst, mitt romney. the gaffeomatic, twelve. i am not too worried about barack obama. >> richard duda this is my first e-mail to a radio program but i wanted to thank you for the time you have had joe cereoncione. >> he is a phenomenal guest, a dear friend of the show. we are happy to have him on board. coming up, in the next hour we will be talking to huffington post technology columnist jason gilbert. we may have the details of an iphone 5 including a release date. we will get into that plus later on in the show, talking to peter welch and democratic strategy gist chad clanton. join us in studio. peter ogburn in for bill. >> this is the bill press show.

heel theme. >> good morning. welcome to the full-court press, live on current tv. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill press. i don't appreciate chick-fil-a. i will not give them my money. neither should you because of their efforts to fight gay marriage. also, mitt romney is on the final stretch of his european vacation where he managed to piss off just about every other country except for the united states. we are pretty pissed off at him, too. i can't wait for him to get back and start screwing up on

american soil. that will be fun. we have got a great show coming up. how can we save the postal service? we are going to get into that in just a few moments. first, here is your current news update in los angeles, is lisa ferguson. good morning, lisa. >> good morning, peter. good morning, everyone. president obama is campaigning in ohio today and new polls just released this morning show he is up in that key battleground state. this one comes from quinnipiac cbs and the "new york times" and shows mr. obama has hit the 50% threshold flu three swing states. he leads romney by 11 points. he is up 6 points in florida and ohio. that news for romney since no republican has ever taken the white house without winning ohio. romney is trying to pre-empt the president's visit with a new ad criticizing him for the auto bail-out. the spot features an ohio car dealership owner saying under the bail out measure, the dream he worked so hard for was gone.

>> that's a little iranic since romney tried taking credit for the auto bail-out in an interview with a cleveland television station nonetheless. we shouldn't be surprised if flip-flopping were an olympic sport, he would win the gold. he pulled off a triple flip saying cultural differences. tuesday morning, he blamed the media saying he never mentioned culture. last night, he changed his might yet again in a national review op-ed titled culture does matter, rom anything else wrote what accounts for prosperity is not culture. obviously not a great trip for romney overseas but republicans are still calling it a win. a former spokesperson for president george w. bush said yesterday that romney's israel trip shows there is something to be said for politicians who speak bluntly and who speak the truth. more full-court press after the break with peter ogburn and we are life in chat current.com/billpress.

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[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >>blasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. happy wednesday, august 1st, 2012. welcome to the full-court press, the bill press show, where i am clearly not bill press. i am not nearly as handsome. i peter ogburn sitting in for bill. thank you for being here. taking your calls at 866-55-press. 866-557-7377. remember that number. you will need it here in near moments. online at billpressshow.com. i am tweeting at peter ogburn. and you can join the chat.

our chat room at current.com. it's a great site for full-court pressers to interact with other full-court pressers. we are watching your comments. so if you get one we like, you might get it on the air. i amably assisted today by dan henning. >> good morning. >> nice of you to show up today. >> i always like to get a report on your upcoming nuptuals he is engaged to be wed. >> plans are rolling. next june and -- >> next june? under a year out? >> absolutely. ten months from today. exactly 10 months, june 1st is my wedding date. leslie met with the florist or the wedding planner to talk about the flowers already and we are going to do some tasting soon. i would like to say, we are on par or ahead of par of planning. >> you had ahead of schedule?

>> save the dates are out. she hasn't run or fled? >> yeah. >> changed and hasn't been able to make a run for it? those of you who don't know, i met dan's fan seefiance. i was thinking this poor woman. i would figure she would show up with like an eye patch or a wooden leg or something like that. clearly there would have been something wrong with her to be marrying dan. beautiful girl. very smart had a nice conversation with her. i don't know what the hell is wrong with her. my suspicion is a brain tumor. maybe she will realize she is making a huge mistake. screening calls is stevie lee webb. >> i have nothing to add to that sad exchange there. >> i could not be happier that you are here we are in the

middle of olympic fever. >> absolutely. >> on your home turf in london. >> yes i know. >> have you heard any reports on the ground en though you are here where i am? >> i have. all of my friends had a jolly good laugh sitting in the public watching men's olympic beach volleyball in the rain in the cold in london. >> i was watching i think the first day of beach volleyball action women in bikinis. the announcer says it's 55 degrees outside. because when i put on my bikini it has to be above 75 degrees. running video operations is cyprian bowlding doing a fine job over there, doing the best he can to make me look good. we got word yesterday, bill mentioned that the first lady, michelle obama will speak the first night in charlotte north carolina and taking the keynote

is julian castro. my favorite story about julian he was not mayor yet. he was running for some elected. it wasn't even mayor. this was in 2005. he has a twin brother named juaquim castro. it cape out that julian would use his twin brother to show up as him at campaign events to be two places at once. >> fabulous. >> genius everybody gave him a ton of grief. >> that's hustling. maybe we will get julian castro at the dnc. maybe we will get his brother joaquim. who snows we will have to stay tuned. last hour, we were talking about snoop lion. you had the story about snoop lion and snoop dogg has a new regea album. did you find audio

[ music ] >> how hot is he? i like that. it is solid. >> i expected for it to be awful and comic. it's serious. he has this documentary film that is debuting. online, it's snoop lion and this song is called la-la-la. how creative. >> call the song la-la-la. >> produced by major laysor. >> is that true. >> absolutely true. >> i like it. >> i think it's good. >> let us know what you think about that on twitter at bp show or at peter ogburn.

taking your calls at 866-55-press on a very important topic here coming up. the postal service, what's the future of the postal service? we have some bad news from the postal service to report. i am not sure what it means, but i do know we should do something about it. we are going to talk about it in just a few moments but first. this is the full court press. >> on this wednesday, other headlines making news, a huge night for the american women in the gym nastics competition at the olympics the fab five, the u.s.'s first gold medal in that event since 1996. the effort was led by jordan weaver, denied that spot in the finals in the individual competition sunday night because only the top two finishers from each country could advance. >> it's a dumb rule. good for her for leading the way on this. i have to tell you i expected myolimpic fever to wear off a little bit. i still have it. >> yeah. >> i have it. every night, 8:00 o'clock

eastern time, i am there music kicks in. bob costas can never retire. >> he is good. >> that voice of his doing the olympics, it's -- that guy hasn't aged a bit. i will say for all of our bitching and moneying about -- moaning, ryan seacrest needs to go. he can never be invited back to the olympics. if i become supreme ruler of the world, i will decree no more ryan seacrest. no more ryan secrest. i will tell you. i am a ryan secrest fan. >> of course you are. >> i am not ashamed of saying that. i think it's a fabulous tall he want. >> awful. >> i don't think he belongs in the olympics. >> watch every night at 8:00 o'clock eastern, you know the results. >> kwlo care. >> you are okay with that? >> i don't care. >> this whole idea of we have to

be able to watch it live nbc should air it live. people have jobs. people can't sit around and go home and go and watch t.v. live in the afternoon, and if you don't want to know who wins, you could insulate yourself from that if you gave a crap. don't go on twitter. don't go on face book. news outlines aren't reporting it like in your face. nbc is going out of that ieir way to not report t watch it live. i have to tell you kwlo mean to go on this jag. it's cool to watch it with kids. i have never watched it with kids that gave a damn. my seven-year-olds is way, way into it. his favorite sport is synchronized diving which, well we haven't made it to track and field. hopefully

scott brown says he's considering it. that es a pretty high profile invite to turn down. >> bill: she's doing this, i understand, at the edward m. kennedy institute, right? (vo) cenk uygur is many things. >>oh really? >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! this this. >> they are clearly struggling. and i don't know what that means for us as americans because i have to say, we do the post office and the postal service so

well. i hate to break it down to a base level but if you think about you take a piece of paper and put some postage on it drop it in a box and it goes wherever you want it to an alarming success rate. can you imagine any other company having the success rate? how often do you lose mail or a bill get lost or a letter get lost? it rarely happens. it's such a well-run operation that it disturbs me we can't get it to where it's a profital business. it's a great business. what do we do? how do we save it? 866-55 press. 866-55737377. some people say congress needs to take over. some people say that it needs to be taken in to and absorbed by the government run by the government because it is not run by the government no tax dollars goes to fund the united states postal service. we had an e-mail from linda

trickle who says everyone please go out and buy stamps today. which is a good way to support the postal service. buy postage. that he have these forever stamps you can buy now and you can use them any time even if they increase the price of postage. linda says correct the bush private eyesathes measure. they had their retirement plan. the hair-brain scheme is tragix, one of the first acts of george w. bush's office to take the post office >> i am reading from the huffington post piece, the senate pass add bill that addressed some of the pre-funding burden to free up money for the agency to eliminate about 100,000 jobs and

limit some of their overnight delivery in some areas. so they have made lay-offs. they are closing units. they are -- facilities. they are limiting hours that some of them are open. they are talking about getting rid of saturday delivery. i -- i don't know which one works. but i know that we have to do something to fix the postal service. 866-55-press is our phone number. 866-557-7377. this is not the end of the postal service defaulting on this particular loan. okay? this is not the end-all, be-all. it is a symptom of the problem that the post office has. they can't make money. let's go to fran in springfield, missouri. fran, welcome to the full-court press. how are you? >> fine. fine. listen, i love the post office, but i tell you it's being set up to fail because the neocons

in congress, they want to privatize it. >> it is. it is already -- i mean, it doesn't take any taxpayer money, fran. >> right. but they they want privatizing everything for their own greed. otherwise, they wouldn't be doing this. >> let's go to jimny mankato. >> how is it going guys. >> thanks. you are not in mineral bachmann's district? >> no, i am not. >> thanks, dude. >> i am too gay and too black for that. >> all right. good for you. if you are a gay blackman supporting michelle obama [ . >> michelle bachmann. >> sorry. sorry. everybody gets one . >> here is the deal towards the end of the bush administration they actually passed, congress passed these crazy regulations

on the post office. one of the big ones is that they are required to fund their pensions and health benefits 75 years in advance. so the shortfall of their shortfall right now every year instead of posting profits they have to dump this money into these pension plans. when you think about t they are funding people's benefits that aren't even born yet. >> wow. >> if you actually step back for a minute and look at it, the post office is not budgeted by congress. everything the post office does is funded by postage. look at the budget. there is no post in the budget. >> right. >> everything is paid for by stamps. >> right. >> if they didn't have -- if they didn't have to fund -- what other business has to fund 75 years in advance. >> yeah. >> worth of benefits. >> jimmy, that's an excellent point. jim jimmy, thank you for the call. i knew our listeners would have some insight on this. we have the smartest listeners on television. it's the full court press. i am peter ogburn sitting in for

bill press. we will continue this conversation about the post office. how do we safe the post office? what went wrong? 866557377. see you on the other side. >> this is the bill press show. not true! >>oh really? >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

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>>only on current tv. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill >> heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it's the full-court press, peter ogburn sitting in for bill press today. thank you so much for being here. normally found writing for fishbowl dc and tweeting at twit peterogburn. >> today, the post office will default on a 5 and a half

billion dollar payment on the mention funds of their employees. a good lesson on this by jimmy in minnesota in the last segment. in moments we will talk to jason 2k3wi8 bert from the huffington post on their technology report on the iphone 5. let's go to the phones here, donna in seattle, washington talking about the postal service. welcome to the full-court press. >> thank you peter. good morning. >> hey, now. thanks for calling now. >> yeah, well, i am at work right now, driving my postal truck. i am an atw member. >> all right. good for you. >> you are our kind of listener. >> their mandate was killing us. i believe it was intentional. i would hope people call their congressman. they are the ones who passed a

bill. >> let me ask you this, donna. i hate to interrupt. we are short on time. is this, as you see it a problem with the postal service and does the government need to step in and sort of take this over, or does it need to be reorganized by the actual post office? >> we have a mandate as 85% of our problem. i just read it on our union bullet board 85% of the financial problem is with mandates. >> donna, i appreciate the call. someone who knows. i am telling you we have the smartest listeners on t.v. and radio. it's the full court press, peter ogburn sitting in for bill press today. coming up: have we seen the new iphone. jason gilbert might have. he is with the huffington post. % he will telling all about it after this. >> this is the bill press show. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ]

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv. can i say that?

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show new on current tv. >> good morning. welcome to this wednesday, august 1st. i was in puker mode. good morning. >> i heard that. >> that was totally -- i don't know where it came from. i fell into pukerface. good morning. it is the bill press show, the full court press live on current tv and on your favorite progressive radio stations around the country. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill today. thank you so much for being here. i am a technology nerd. i geek out on this stuff.

i have a lot of different apple products. when i saw the news yesterday from the huffington post jason gilbert that we may have more details on an iphone 5, the latest version of the iphone, i got interested and we went after jason to join us on the show this morning. jason, good morning. >> immigrate. how are you? >> i am doing well. what's the latest here? let's start on the release date. we may have a date on when we see the new iphone. >> pretty sure it's going to be september 21st, a friday with an event planned for september 12th, which is a wednesday that sort of follows the days of the week that apple usually uses for announcements and nine days later for their release. >> it seems like kind of a quick turnaround. it's pretty normal? is that what you are saying? >> that's normal. they like to announce a product and have it available for people

to pre-order and like people to get excited about it and throw money at them without thinking about it. they never announce products without being able to input your credit car and get that thing. >> i like that business strategy. guilty as charged. what are we throwing money at i guess? what are some of the details? remember these are based upon leaks from different supply chains and manufacturers who think they know. these might not be the right or correct details, but what we think is going to happen is you are going to see a slight larger screen from three and a half to 4 inches mezused from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. we think we are going to see the head phone jack moved to the bottom of the phone from the top. we think we are going to see a

smaller charging dock connector, so you are going to have to get an adapter for old accessories or just by all new accessories and they are doing that so that the phone can be thinner and probably a little bit taller and weigh a lot less. >> our producer dan henning is beside himself he is so pissed off? >> if i am going to have to get a new charger and new accessories and everything for this phone, that's a cheap way to make money. >> i imagine that they will still have all of the other stuff for the older versions available? right? jason? >> sure. >> they are not going to completely screw you over. >> we are heard their going to offer an adapter for free. but i am not really convinced that was going to happen. >> i was going to say. >> i ain't buying that but i hear what you saying?

>> apple is sort of famous for this kind of thing. if they think that making the connector smaller will make the device better which they do. they think it will make the phone charge faster and they think they will be able to make the phones thinner and lighter, then they will say, well yeah, you have to pay an extra whatever $10 for a new charger or an adapter or something like that. but look how great this new device is. the new mac book proceed, a new charging dock. people are buying $20 charging adapters in droves because they want the new mac book pro. >> that's funny to me. is there anything else apple is going to do to piss people a off this time around? i see the charger as something that will make people angry.

>> the channeler is almost certainly going to be the thing. they have sort of been leaking information to a lot of different publications. the wall street journal and tech crunch. i think they are priming people to get ready because because none of the accessories are going to work anymore without an adapter. >> talk about -- talk about it for a second. i don't remember apple being known for leaking information. they have been not orously secretive. >> they are notoriously secretive. they have been but every once in a while, you will a few -- a few of the same newspapers. i mentioned reuters, bloomberg and the wall street journal, that they are notoriously close to. they will have the same story within a few days of each other

c citing anonymous sources. that's just apple pr leaking something out that they want to get out and to prime people for. this week with the september 12th event day within 12 hours, reuters, bloomberg, "wall street journal," "new york times" had the same story. if you don't think that apple leaked that story to all of those publicationstion i think you are actually pretty naive. >> that's sort of how they work. >> i was going to say, i guess that, you know, you get apple rumors probably daily at the huffington post as their technology columnist. what makes these more credible than others? the fact it looks like it's being leaked from apple? >> yeah. i mean. when they have the same story at the same time, it's usually

apple. a lot of rumors i have seen coming across are from sort of sketchier websites that you wouldn't necessarily trust, they are not -- they don't have the provenance of a reuters or a "wall street journal." news services reporting on after he will rumor. you can usually rely on it it looks like there are pictures of the iphone 5. >> those aren't apple-sanctioned apple-sanctioned. >> sure. >> those are apple workers sneaking parts from the factory and making a lot of money to post them online. >> hour legit are those

pictures? they could have been photo-shopped. >> they could be photo-shopped. >> they could have been photo-shopped. they could have been photo-shopped. kiesh

>> we talk a lot about the influence of money in politics. it is the defining issue of this era. the candidate with the most money does win. this is a national crisis.

>> we talk a lot about the influence of money in politics. it is the defining issue of this era. the candidate with the most money does win. this is a national crisis.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ]

>> heard around the country. >> this is the 46 minutes past the hour, if you will court press. sitting in for bill this morning. thank you for being here. you can chat with us at current.com. please go there and chat with all of the other full-court pressers. there are some characters in that chat room. let me tell you. it's a wild place. go over there. check it out. find our website, billpressshow.com. coming up in the next hour, our good friend chad clanton is going to be in studio with me. we will be joined by congressman peter welch from vermont to talk about the tax cuts. congress is getting ready to go on vacation for a month and a half. not bad. not a bad gig.

we will be talking about that on this wednesday august 1st. so yesterday, we played a clip dick cheney, over the weekend, saying that sarah palin was a mistake. he just flat out said picking her as the vice presidential candidate was not a good idea. it was a mistake. here is how dick cheney put it. >> i met her. i know her. she is an attractive candidate. but based on her background, she had only been governor for what? two years. i don't think she passed that test. >> being ready. >> of being ready to take over. and i think that was a mistake. >> good for him for admitting what everybody knows. i mean john mccain was bad enough as president. about when you pick somebody as bad as sara palin to be your vice presidential can data, there is no other way to put it. we crude updidate, there is no other way to put it.

we crude up good for him for being honest about it. never one too shy away from the camera, sarah palin went on greta van sustern's show on fox news and listen to how sarah fights back against dick cheney. >> your response to dick cheney? >> well seeing as how dick -- excuse me -- vice president -- >> okay. stop the tape. does anybody think that that was accidental? calling him dick? >> nope. >> and then, oh i'm sorry. vice president cheney. anybody think that was an accident? no. go ahead. >> well, seeing as how dick -- excuse me -- vice president cheney never misfires then evidently he is convinced what he read about me by the mainstream media having been written, what i believe is a false narrative over the last four years. >>end dick cheney believed that stuff. >> that's a shame. he characterized me as being a

mistake. here is where the mistake would have been, greta, i believe. it's had i not answered the call, i was honored to get to run for vice president. >> evidently. >> evidently. could she be any worse? i mean just i am not going to -- i am not going to go there and talk about how she has an annoying voice and all of that but just when you go on t.v. i mean, look. apparently -- elides they will let anybody on t.v. they let me on t.v. but for her to go on she has nothing to say. >> nothing to say at all. >> i learned a long time ago, if you have noing to say, don't say anything. just shut up. don't go out there and blah, blah, blah blah. it's like she knows where point a and point b, she isknows where they are and the way that she meanders her way to get there is so much fun to watch and yet so cringe. >> when you have nothing to say, you tend to fall on crutches lamestream media. she throws that in all the time when she has nothing better to

say. >> this has become so annoying. i think the media deserves to get a decent amount of crap every now and then. so she is now blaming the media because of all of this which it's dick cheney. number 1, he is not the media. no. 2, she is the media. she is a paid commentator on fox news. so that's bogus, completely bogus. romney? who is now the gaffe-o-matic 2000. he cannot make a move without stepping in it. he comes out and says, yeah, william, this is the media's fault. you can't just blame the media for every single screw-up that you make. at some point, it loses its power. you know, if you say something dumb, and then you blame the media every single time that you say something dumb, it's like the empiror with no clothes. it's like you are talking garbage now and we don't buy

into this any more. >> that's my soap box on the media. we are doing what we can to sort of help keep the candidates honest there. speaking of mitt, he has released a new mobile app. if you want to know who mitt romney's vice presidential candidate will be, i am not going to say there is an app for that because i think everything is saying that but you can download an app all about who his vice presidential candidate will be, they will announce it there first. you can find it for iphone and on android and as soon as they make the announcement, they can send it to you. >> i can't wait for that push notification. >> yeehaw. you will find out. if you don't download it, you will have to wait a full three minutes before somebody reports on it. so you could be that far ahead of the curve. obama did something similar when he was running last time with the joe biden announcement. he was going to text people who had signed up. so i understand why do it.

but these days you could find out in the time it takes you to download the app, you will probably know who the vice presidential candidate is. so there is that. we are going to talk to chad clanton, a native of texas in just a few moments because we got some big news. last night, in the primary, in the texas -- the election in texas to replace kay bail hutchinson lieutenant governor david dewhurst had a large, large lead over ted cruz not that long ago. ted cruz cruises to victory last night. here is how it sounded. >> to preserve liberty to restore the constitution uh-huhbelled and honored to be marching alongside each and every one of you. >> you don't like my cruises to victory? >> no. how much do you bet there is a hackneyed newspaper. >> probably at the top of the dallas morning news. >> exactly. the point here is ted cruz, a

rabid tea partier and i think for the last couple of months we talked to eliot spitzer, host of "viewpoint" on current tv each night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. we talked to him earlier about how we thought the tea party support was slowly declining. maybe that's not the case. and it's a little disconcerting maybe to use one of mitt romney's favorite words that got him in trouble. i don't know how we fell in love with the tea party again. how people fell in love with the tea party again but some people have. it's going to be a fight in texas. peter ogburn sitting in for bill press. we will be right back to tell you what the president is up to today. >> this is the bill press show. dose of politics from a fresh

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>> this is the bull press show. >> on current tv and your radio. what's the president up to today? we have it here. we have his schedule. 9:50 a.m. eastern time. he hops on air force one and heads to: where else? ohio. he's got several plans -- planned stops in ohio. first one in mansfield, ohio. he is going to be speak can atacam pain event and then he hits the road at 2:30 to go to akron, ohio. he has some time there. he speaks in mansfield at 11:40 and leaves at 2:30. i am sure they have found a couple of pastry shops and burger joints for him to hit. he arrives in akron at 3:00 o'clock.

he gives his remarks at the john knight center at 3:55 this afternoon. at 5:00 o'clock, he is back and on his way to washington, d.c. where he arrives back here at 6:30, back on the south lawn of the white house. so there is the president's schedule as we always say. if he has nothing plannedtiously he is either going to iraq or ohio. and today, it happens to be ohio. there is no question about it. he is in full campaign mode. and he knows how important it is. obama, on the bill press show. just because bill is on doesn't mean i can cover his white house duties. they won't let me within a mile of that place. stay to you, chad clanton in the next hour. >> this is the bill press show.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> good wednesday morning, august 1st. welcome to the full court press. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill today. we have so much to talk about. the olympics are in full swing. michael phelps became the most decorated olympian of all time yesterday. we will talk about that and how much are you into the olympics and the coverage? i for one can't get enough of it. also, so long and thanks for the parogies. mitt romney is on his way back home. could he have screwed that up

any worse? plus we will be talking about the election results in texas last night with native texan chad clanton and as congress leaves to go on vay case we will talk to the congressman from vermont, congressman peter welch. right here on the full-court press. first action our current news update with lisa firstson live in los angeles. good morning. >> good morning, peter. good morning, everyone. turns out the president's fundraising numbers are not as bad as some would like us to believe. a new article from the huffington post revealed obama for america has brought in $307 million this year as of the i need of june. that isn't far off track from the 339 million he raised during the same period in 2008. the president set records during his first election cycle when he hauled in $750 million. mr. obama put some of his own money in the pot donating $5,000 to his campaign fund. we are seeing politicians take a stronger stance on gun control.

pat quin is now proceedposing an amendment that would ban semi automatic assault weapons in the state, the ak-47 and ar-15. he says those were designed to target people. if the vote grows through, illinois would join a handful of states that have assault weapons bans including massachusetts which interestingly enough mitt romney signed into law. earlier this week, frank lautenberg and carolyn mccarthy introduced their own bill that would ban online ammunition sales. it would require dealers to report anyone buying ammo in budge. no tell if anything those will pass. democrats are usually afraid to touch them in case it costs them reelection. on a little bit of a lighter note, we have been talking on full-court press about chick-fil-a appreciation day. well, that's being countered by a kiss in. same-sex marriage supporters will show up not to eat but to kiss. join us in chat, current current.com/billpress

current.com/billpress. >>it's the place where democracy is supposed to be the great equalizer, where your vote is worth just as much as donald trump's. we must save the country. it starts with you.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> welcome to the bill press show. it's the full court press live on your radio and live on current tv. thank you so much for being here. i am not bill press. i am peter ogburn sitting in for bill. i appreciate you being there. dan henning working the board. >> all right. >> taking your calls, your phoning the morning zoo territory. >> good morning. >> mocking you. >> did i do that? >> earlier. >> earlier. i did it once. i admit i did it once. i fell bo puker morning zoo

mode. >> i was expecting pyas baloney. >> screening calls theat 86657377. the capable stevie lee webb. >> nicest thing you've ever said to me unfortunately. >> i am thrilled we have a britishman here. >> i have to get out of here fast afterwards. i am qualifying for the complaining term. later on today. >> they are a shoo-in to win drizzle ball. >> a wet lay-up this year. >> exactly. on the video operations is cyprian bowlding saying good morning as he does each and every morning. in studio, our good friend chad colinn clan -- clanton. >> glad to be here. >> he was here when we made the announcement? >> breaking worldwide news.

glad to be part of it. >> america's morning show. i am happy to be here peter ogburn sitting in for bill. chad, today would have been the 70th birthday of this man: [ music ] >> oh. >> joe garcia. >> yeah. >> i remember when jerry garcia died. i am not a big grateful dead fan. there want a time in my life that i was a big grateful dead fan. no so much any more. >> what did the grateful dead say when the drugs wore off? >> this is terrible. >> he would have been 70 years old today. >> they were a huge humongous deal. that was a movement. they tapped into something. >> i eat the ice cream, cherry

garcia. >> that's a favorite of mine. >> eight minutes past the hour. i want to get right into the news from texas. ted cruz winning the primary. we will get the details of that. but first. >> this is the full court press. >> hi, there. >> how is it going in there? on the board today is our good friend rusty. hi rusty. rusty on the board. >> you were two minutes early. here we go. other headlines. >> it's my fault. it's the media fault. >> after several strong medal perform applications yesterday in gymnastics team u.s.a. remains atop the medal count leader board with china. each with 23 medals. the u.s. has nine goalsgold, six silver, six bronze. >> we will dominate in track and field? right? >> i think so. >> we usually dominate that. i feel good.

>> besides hussein bolt. >> he is washed up. >> we are keeping our eyes on the quote/unquote dream team basketball team as well. >> let's not go there. >> calling them the dream team. >> calm talking more about the olympic cover. are you watching? >> sure. >> it's great. >> i love it so bad. i am watching the afternoon stuff i have it. ivoed. and they have dan patrick doing the coverage. they were going back and forth. i think they settled on the estate e-mail team which is pretty good. >> luken hymner many are bewildered what kind of separation it is because of the overly friendly statement he put out about it. politico reports they called his decision mutual and amicable and remain close friends and intend to function as a family that spends a great deal of time together.

the statement goes on to state that they are going on their annual vacation their annual family vacation together this week. they will share meals often and will spend family holidays together. >> would you. >> and they go on to ask to it be continued to both be included in social invitations saying gathers in the same space will not be awkward. sounds like the only change is they will not live in the same house any more. >> you had me up until the social. i see that if you have got kids. >> one 10-year-old son. >> you have to really be there for the kid. but if you are being asked to come to social events with the -- with your ex-wife. >> that's a little weird. >> i hear that on why are you getting a divorce? >> that's the big question. why are you getting separated? >> i know some people who are married that don't get along that well. >> is there a problem with president obama's reelection campaign slogan? forward? punctuationuation nerds say yes. "the wall street journal" spoke with several people on both sides of the aisle and some inside campaign saying there is

some controversy with the word which has a period at the end of it. it's been called a buzz kill that bankruptly stops, forward, stop. not a smooth-flowing. it's a slogan from four years ago, yes we couldn't which had no puncsuation in it. one grammar expert says it's not even a sentence because it is not a verb orb interject, that one word cannot be a gram attic sentence. >> digging in the weeds. >> someone has free time on their hands. >> movethe word forward, this is a major problem for the obama campaign. >> "the wall street journal" carol lee friend of the bill press wrote it and it's hilarious. >> i like carol lee. i have nothing against carol lee but these people do you have nothing better to do than bitch about that? i mean... oh. forward. i like forward.

>> forward . >> twelve minutes past the hour, 866-55-press, 866-55-7377 chad. clanton, a native of texan -- of texas. >> yeah. >> it's good to have you in here today because we did get some news from texas. ted cruz and david dewhurst the lieutenant governor of texas have been running for kay bailey hutchinson's seat. last night was their primary. there was a time that dewhurst was well ahead of -- >> gentleman. >> ted cruz. ted cruz a tea partier. >> yeah. >> and last night, it wasn't even close to 43 the two to do %. dewhurst got trounced. ted cruz after the win addressed his supporters. >> to preserve liberty, to restore the constitution. uh-huh belli am humbled and honored to be marching alongside each and every one of you. my first question when i heard this, my first thought, i kind

of thought the tea party was on its way out. if you would have asked me three months ago, are we going to see more tea partyers on the ballot you know, is that something that you are concerned about or something that you are seeing, i would say, no. >> yeah. >> but clearly, it's not a movement that's completely dead anyway? >> well, i mean clearly this is a remarkable story and it, you know, is a number 1 story in the country today in terms of politics. this is a triumph for the tea party. it is alive and well and exposes the giant rift in the republican party between the more traditional chamber of commerce kind of republicans versus the very extreme tea party, grassroots activists and it's a big victory for them. let's not forget, this is a big

victory for antigovernment crowd. this man is 41 years old. it's a remarksable victory, and he didn't just be the lieutenant governor of texas. >> that's a big job by the way. david dueewhurstdewhurst, lieutenant governor. constitutionally it's more powerful than the state of governor but he beat rick perry, too. this was rick perry's candidate. this is a big deal. just when you thought they were flat on their back, the tea party, they are rising up like a giant. >> yeah. >> in texas. >> he was a tried and true tea partyer. he got the endorsement of sarah palin, jim demint. >> dick army. >> dewhurst spent -- out spent 3

to 1. he spent $19 million of his own money in this race. >> just so you are -- >> the primary. >> your viewers have a snapshot of this, david dewhurst was like, affable, khaki pants, you know, sort of texas republican guy. rick perry likes him lieutenant governor, and popular. this guy whacked him. this wasn't a photo finish. he got nearly 57% the vote. you don't win stuff like that very often. >> the other thing i find a little concerning about this is the house of representatives, they are lousy with tea partyers. they are a lot of tea partyers in the house. this is a senate race, and if -- >> statewide. >> statewide race. what does that say for, i guess, texas, but, also how canould that

play? >> i grew up in waco texas, native texan, proud of that. like a whole other country we say at home. >> it really is i lived in texas. it is a completely different country. >> i would say unfortunately for me as a texas democrat shows texas is moving to the right, you know, at least in the republican party at least, on this day, now, look we know the obvious caveats. run-offs, very low turnout people that show up are typically more cranked up. this is tailor made for a tea party triumph. okay? barack obama says he believes texas will be purple. you hope for the best but you don't know of any good texas democrats any more.

not on the national level anyway. >> i think the world of president obama. i will vote for him as a democrat. but someone who has been in texas very long wouldn'ts say that. >> we will take your calls on this 866-55-press. 866-557-7377, a big tea party win last night in the primary in texas. what does that mean? what does it mean for the country? what does it mean for the tea party? what does it mean to 2012? 866-55-press. we will talk to you on the other side. >> this is the bill press show. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

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>> announcer: this is the "bill [music] >> >> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show, new on current tv. >> it is the full court press, the bill press show, i am peter ogburn. normally bill's producer and a con contributor to fishbowl d.c. our show is tweeting at bp show. chad are you on the twitters? >> not so much. i am more of a facebook person. but you are a good tweeter. >> am i? >> yeah. like, man, you are good with words. >> here is my thing. here is my thing. i started off really hating twit ir er. then i started liking twitter a lot more. now i am sort of back in the twitter funk. >> for the good of the human community, i hope you keep tweeting because you really are good at t you might say you are a natural.

>>@peterogburn. you should get on twitter. >> okay. i kind of have this reaction when people are telling me what to do. you might call it a texan thing. >> all right. >> i don't like it so. >> back off. take calls here on the win from tea partyer ted cruz in the texas senate primary last night. mike in georgetown delaware. welcome to the full court presses. >> yeah. i just wanted to say i was sadly disappointed with the tea party win down there, but i think it shows the mentality of the people down there. and another thing i tried to get on about the 400, the fortune 500 companies now, to 1 voting for romney. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. the. >> the reason i believe is because they don't give credit to obama for that. they give credit to the g.o.p. for blocking every day he tried to do. >> that's a good point, mike. i think they are misguided in that. that. i mean if you look at how business has done in this term

in obama, term record profits. they are doing great. >> this is great for democrats. you know, any tea party triumph is good for democrats because it further divides the republican party. it further exposes the giant difference between sort of any sort of mainstream republican and these very passionate grassroot tea party folks which, you know, they just have a very different point of view than, you know the rest of the country. >> they wreak havoc on the house of representatives. >> yeah. >>. >> make no mistake about it, that was due to the tea party. john boehner, who if you ask any reporter and a lot of democrats, is a reasonable man, john boehner. but when your hands are tied and you have got this sort of wounded bull in the tea party running around the house, you really put yourself in a behind. let's go to geoff in madison, wisconsin. geoff, welcome to the bill press

show. >> hi, there. current tvans and hello america and hello bill press show. >> thanks for calling in, geoff. >> i wanted to say, hey, this isn't the only tea party victory we have had this year. don't forget the raul in wisconsin. obama said he wanted texas to become a purple state. unfortunately, wisconsin is now a purple state. you know, luckily, it's a matter of speaking the truth, you know, to defeat the tea party but unfortunately ignorance is difficult to overcome. >> yeah. >> we have an uphill battle yet. >> that's a good point. i for goatgot about that. >> they defeated dick luker. >> richard murdoch, a tea partier as well. >> right. >> a humonguos deal. very well thought of, pretty moderate senator, richard luge rfl r, gone. >> let's go down to the bellly of the beast >> gleameda in houston texas. >> hi, good morning. >> what's your take on the win there last night for the tea party?

>> it was a sad day for texas when we had two choices, one of them was backed by perry and the other one was backed by palin. our state has already gone backwards in so many areas education and jobs. we have one of the highest number of jobs for minimum wage jobs in the country. and, you know, i think what we have is not a -- we have a right-to-work state. basically, it's a right-to-work-november nothing state. >> that's a good point, glenda. >>ism like our state just took a giant leap backwards and if lbj could resurrect himself, i am sure he would be appalled at the current state of politics in texas. >> there were some great democrats from the state of texas in the history of texas really quickly, let's go to pat in belloit wisconsin. >> i am a tea party infiltrator. i go to their meters. not all the time but periodically. >> i like it.

>> what i see is like the last one i attended two weeks ago, there were 40 people there, thirty of them at least were 60 and above. many above. and what they are getting their news is from fox and from the terribly right-winged blogs. i grew up. i am a boomer. okay? i grew up in that period when we were term oilturmoiled, the younger generation. what i am seeing is there is such a gap between the young people, this under-30 and myself although i am in education and work at a high school. >> we have to cut you off, pat because we are right up against a break. >> that's a good point, the generational gap. we will see how it plays off. >> i hope she gets a free sandwich for sitting through all of that. something. >> a nice government cheese sandwich. >> definitely. >> the bill press show peter ogburn. we will be right back. >> this is the bill press show. [ music ]

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv. can i say that?

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>> romney you can take it. >> a new ad we will play for you when we come back here with lynn sweet, chicago sun times methderr death shiner from row call and bill cress part full-court press. you are welcome to join our 866-55-press. we will be right back. >> this is the bill press show.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it is the bill press show. peter ogburn sitting in for bill press today on the full-court press, live on your radio and on current tv. thank you so much for being here. we are always taking your calls at 8 since 6-55-press. we have a full studio. we have room for you on that line 866-557-737. we have good friend chad clanton sitting in this hour and joined now by the at-large congressman from the state of vermont, peter welch back in studio. thank you very much for being here. >> good to be here. >> let's start first because we were just talking about the big win in texas for ted cruz a tea

partyer. you have been in congress. you have seen the effect that the tea party has had on how business gets done in congress. for those people who have been living under iraq and haven't seen how they have wreaked havoc, what's it like to work with the tea party in the house? >> you mean how business doesn't get done? >> that's the way to put it. >> that's the challenge. there is an ideological point of view that saying no is a route to progress and what's profoundly different about the tea party conservatism and traditional is small taxes personal responsibility. but that included an acknowledgement that you had to build institutions in order to be the custodian of values that were important for society's regeneration. a lot of the tea party folks are of the view that tearing down institutions will liberate our best potential and government is

the biggest institution to be targeted. and my view, that's a dangerous proposition because any institution has challenges. government among them obviously. but they have got to be reformed in order to make progress. so what you are seeing now in congress is we have literally are not going our job. the most recent example, the farm bill, the senate passed the farm bill. we all were relieved. the house ag committee passed one and for the first time in the history of our country when the house ag committee has passed a bill, the leadership mr. boehner, mr. cantor are refusing to let it come to the floor. well, that's our job. >> yeah. >> you can debate it and we can have different points of view. but if we are going to be held accountable and do our job, we should have that on the floor be given an opportunity to offer amendments, vote up or down and voters know where we stand and they can hold us accountable. >> it comes from an ideological view a foundation the dismantling government is a good thing. >> that's right.

>> i think that's essentially it, that the view is that if you get rid of government, then people will have that opportunity to achieve their full potential. you know it sounds kind of nice in a way. but i am a person who thinks that part of personal responsibility is investing yourself in institutions. it might be your local bank your local church. it might be building a law firm, building a local radio station but the point is that those things matter. it's a place that our injuries has to be invested. the second thing is as a tactic we saw in indiana and now in texas, the folks who won the primaries, remarkable stories, give them credit. but the major platform is we won't compromise. we are getting a bigger uncompromising caucus in congress and so compromise has become a four-letter word. >> yeah. >> people, they sell that. people want that.

they vote for it and they go to congress and have to act that way. >> that's the problem. >> you make a good point. >> that's what they sell. >> it's not that the government doesn't want to work. it's that these tea partyers are not letting the government work. it blows my mind that this is what is selling and that they pushed that message so far? >> it's true. i come from vermont. we had -- i was in the minority served in the state senate. for some time, i was in the mighty minority, some in the majority. it worked in a finance committee, for instance, four democrats and threecrats or vice versa. we would be in that room together for four months, be getting information presented to us at the same time. so two things happened over the course of that interaction that was sustained for four months. one, we were hearing the same facts at the same time and there was some common definition of the problem. secondly, we were starting to sundays each other and started out not necessarily liking them or approving of the point of

view of your opponent. but over time we came to see their objectives was the same as yours, to make the state stronger. we wanted to find some consensus in order to make progress, not to sell out, but to make progress. in congress, we don't have that. we barely interact. when we have committee hearings they are just kind of show situations where witnesses are called to basically parrot whatever the line is that the majority wants to have rehashed or put in front of the cameras. there is very little interaction among the members. it makes it difficult to find common ground. also it's much tougher on the republican side because my colleagues on the republican side who literally do have to worry about a tea party challenge. so they have to worry about a primary. >> that's not off-the-wall consideration for them. it's just political reality these days.

>> we have heard time and time again from several different people john boehner is not an unreasonable man. >> good legislator. >> that's his reputation. >> willing to make the compromise. this idea that there used to be it this camaraderie in the house and the senate that we will fight for our issues. at the end of the day, we will be friends. >> but ithe has to look over his shoulder for a possible right-wing revolt. right? among his own members? >> that's right. it's almost as though the fact you are willing to work with somebody that you disagree with and try to find something where we let's see if we can work together on this, that's an indication that you are not pure. >> right. >> really not. >> i don't question they really deeply believe it's wrong to can compromise. how do you deal with that? that's tough. if they believe it.

it's not phony. >> everything has turned into an ideological battle. when something is about your ideology, it's almost like your religion. you are entitled to your own point of view. >> sure. >> if it's a religious conviction or ideological conviction conviction, oftentimes people will say that's worth fighting to the death for. politics is about progress and moving the country forward. what we have to do in order to move forward is solve practical problems and that's not about ideology. i mean there are different points of view about how to get there, whether it's an energy policy or the debt and the -- and the weak economy. there is practical considerations but in politics, my view, you have to see the problems as practical problems that require practical resolution. so that does create space for compromise where the compromise is moving you in the intersection the country needs to go. >> yeah. good stuff. let's talk about one of those

problems we need to solve. the president is on the campaign trail. two stops in ohio one in mansfield and one in akron, ohio. one of the things he is pushing for is for the house to pass a tax cut for households earning less than $250,000. how is the president doing on that pitch? and is he doing the right thing? >> he is doing extremely well on that. actually 100% of americans would get a tax cut under his plan. so -- >> that's not bad. >> that's change you could believe in? >> 100%. if you are a millionaire, you will get a tax cut on your first $250,000 and go back to the clinton rates above that. >> good way to put it. absolutely right. >> if we extended the tax cuts the way the senate republicans want to do it and house republicans, you would be adding a trillion dollars to the debt. they want to continue the lower rates at the top end it would be great to get rid of taxes together. >> that's not an option. what you do is add a trillion

dollars to the debt at a time when we can't do that. so i think what the president is doing is politically effective. the polls say americans want that, that they do not buy into the notion that giving millionaires a tax cut will somehow give them a job. it's not going to happen. i think there are two things behind the republican approach and the senate. one is again, the ideology that you know, the more you shrink the revenues the more you shrink the government. it doesn't take into account, what's this going to do to our military ness? what's this what's this going to do to over seeing wall street our agricultural sect? there are a lot of i canplications to slashing across the board. this is the dangerous newlism in politics is that the super rich

are putting the super amount of money in the campaigns because the citizens united. there are like 26 billion airs who poured billions into campaign 26 people, that's discouraging people and turning them off. >> that's an investment for them like very favorable regulatory policy or favorable legislative or tax policy. >> that's money well spent. >> saves them money. >> everything people hate about politics personified. for those who think elections are bought by corporations, that's citizens utenited decision as to how it has affected this campaign is stunning. we need to take a quick break. we will take your calls at 866-55-7377. congressman peter welch and chad clanton intude yes with us. quick break. we will be we will be right back. >> this is the bill press show.

destroy our economy." not true! >>oh really? >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

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you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it is the bill press show the full court press, live on current tv and on your favorite progressive radio station, all around the country. thank you so much for being here. join us in our chat room at current.com. check us out there and at billpressshow.com. tweeting@bp show. i am tweeting at peter ogburn. find our thoughts there. if you can't find it there, we are not doing our job. joined by chad clanton who has been a friend of bill this hour. we call them friends of bill but

when bill is not here, it's friends of peter i guess. and congressman peter welch from the ver hospital. we have been talking about the way the tea party has created gridlock in the house and how ted cruz looks to follow up on that in the senate with his winning the texas primary last night. let's go to cj in palestine texas. welcome to the bill press show. >> hour y'all? >> good. >> chad you know where this is. don't you? i have been to waco many times. let me tell you. >> i was calling in to tell the republicans -- i mean -- not -- -- -- i am excited. all of the democrats in texas to get out and vote this fall and try to defeat this man, this cruz. we have a democratic candidate. try to defeat him and get obama back in. get their friends and neighbors and it may be we will get something done this fall. i am on the endangered species

list in texas. >> you are a liberal. >> i am a democrat. i am a democrat. i am a christian. i am 69 years old. >> would you. >> pretty soon, you won't have me to vote in the democratic... >> c.j. i appreciate the call. let's jump up to philadelphia, pennsylvania. i rene calling the full court press. welcome. >> welcome back to you. one thing the party has -- the democratic party has lost its way. the most important vote we have is in the primary. you can vote against all of these tea party i will it rat illiterates but you have to do it in the primary. in the general election people don't turn out to vote because they don't like the candidates. they should have made their choice back at the primary. >> all right. i appreciate the call irene. good stuff from our listeners 866-55-press is our phone

number. congressman welch, let me ask you because we got word, we have avoided the government shutdown if only temporarily. harry reid and john boehner have announced a deal. so we won't have the last-minute race to the finish line like we have had in years past? right? >> this is the government achievement of low expectations. you know, how this becomes news that we have avoided a shutdown to put it in context, we have had this confrontational approach up against the wall governing, brinksmanship that has had catastrophic consequences. it was a year ago now where we had the whole debt ceiling fiasco, outrageous. the prem is of that premisesd -- the premises was american would default on its bills, the first time. >> some people thought that was a good idea. >> my republican colleagues were advising the two camps on debt ceiling. the group that was going to vote know and the second group that was going to vote hell known no.

that cost us according to the treasury $12,000,000,000. can you imagine that? $12,000,000,000 because we were messing around. >> exactly. for no good reason. >> the thing that was terrible about that was at the end of the day, if congress through it's failure to act allowed the country to default, the bond market would have reacted and pistol-whipped congress to avoid default. we ended up getting the penalty of a downgrade in our credit rating for the first time in history. so that's the brinksmanship politics and both senator mcconnell, who has chosen job description is to see the president is a one-term president and harry reid both understood that this was a fiasco too many. they agreed to a 6-month continuing resolution but basically, that's just a

gentleman gentlemen's agreement in effect to keep the lights on for another six months and everyone to hold their positions of confrontation and combat. it's not like an agreement that % we then collaboratively work to implement that gets us anywhere ahead on what are serious economic challenges we face. it's good we are not going to have this confrontation and have the lights turned off. it's good for probably the politics of the republicans and democrats that we have people not wanting to kill us. but on the other hand, it's a pretty modest achievement. >> look. i mean if this is what progress looks like, you know ouch. we have about 1 minute left. i want to ask you quickly because vacation is coming up for congress. what's going to get done before everybody leaves town? are we going to see some action on the tax cuts? >> no. >> okay. >> this is astonishing to me how little congress is getting done and how little concern there is

about that. a great country has to make decisions decisions. >> uh-huh. >> and when we are making decisions, we are not going to get them all right. a great country then has the capacity to step back and examine how its working and make adjustments and that's the most important thing. the problems we have from the debt to energy policy tophon affairs, they are solvable problems. >> that's the good news. but we have got to approach them as practical problems to be solved and make progress. >> good stuff. good analysis from the man who is right in the middle of it right there in congress. congressman peter welch i appreciate you coming in. >> thank you. >> a quick break. peter okay for bill press, with final thoughts. stay tuned. [ music ] >> this is the bill press show. [ music ]

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>> this is the bill press show. >> yes, it is the bill press show the full court press with peter ogburn sitting in for bill. breaking news out of the olympics eight female bad mitton players have been thrown out because they were trying to lose their matches. >> what? >> a developing story. we will have more on that tomorrow. very curious. i am not sure what exactly is going on. they spotted these players from the chinese team deliberately missing points, missing shots and they have been tossed out of the olympics. >> tossed out by the chinese. >> by the olympic committee.

the bad mitton world federation which what an organization. >> wow. >> have tossed them out. we will have all of that, all of the olympic updates tomorrow. listen, today is august 1st. it is chick-fil-a appreciation day as mike huckabee has decreed. i, for one, will not eat at chick-fil-a ever again ever again. you go to chick-fil-a and give them your money and you are making a mistake. they spend your money on efforts to fight gay marriage. it's wrong. it's absolutely wrong. my name is peter ogburn. i am sitting in for bill press. we will be back tomorrow with dave hill who has a phenomenal new book called "tasteful nude." stay tuned right here. we will see you again tomorrow. >> this is the bill press show.