[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. it is friday, august 31. oh, happy day. oh happy day! the circus is finally over! they're folding their tent down in tampa! hey, good morning, good to see you. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. bringing you the news of the day, lots going on. how about it. in texas voter i.d. law squashed by a judge.

one good attempt to get rid of this attempt to suppress the vote in state after state on the part of republicans. but the big news remains down in tampa. last night unbelievably turning the stage over to geriatric clint eastwood then mitt romney got up to accept the nomination. he proved once and for all that mitt romney has nothing to say. mitt romney has nothing to offer. he just hates barack obama. oh man! we'll cover it. every which way here on the "full court press" this morning. but first, we start off as always getting the latest, today's current news update with lisa ferguson standing by in los angeles. hey, lisa, good morning. >> hi, bill. good morning everyone. well yep plenty to talk about after last night's convention wrap-up. so let's start out with one of the most popular trending topics this morning. the internet community is still reveling in clint eastwood's bizarre ramblings to an empty chair. in case you missed it, here's a

look. >> so, mr. president, how do you handle -- how do you handle promises that you've made. what do you mean shut up? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. >> within literally minutes of the speech, someone had an invisible obama account up on twitter. it is up to more than 36,000 followers and has tweets like the g.o.p. built me and after mitt romney's speech, global warming's invisible too? the ap is reporting romney aides were wincing backstage during the speech. eastwood is one of the few speakers who did not read from a teleprompter. shortly afterward president obama took to his own twitter to respond to the speech with this photo. the picture of the president's chair saying this seat is taken. of course, we'll have more on mitt romney's speech coming up

next hour as well and more bill press after the break. see you then. (vo) every news network will cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. brought to you by: spiriva handihaler. if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free.

spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. what makes hershey's s'mores special? pure chocolate goodness that brings people together. hershey's makes it a s'more... you make it special. pure hershey's.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: clint eastwood steals the show in tampa! is this really what republicans had in mind? guess what? it's friday! [alleluia] >> bill: our favorite day is a friday. especially the last day of the republican convention.

[alleluia] >> bill: alleluia indeed! stay up late watching these crazy republicans anymore trash the president of the united states and trash america. next week, we can stay up late and celebrate the re-election of barack obama. hey, good to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. your progressive morning show and the only one anywhere in this country coming to you live on your progressive talk radio station. wherever you happen to be in this land. if you're lucky enough to have a good, strong progressive radio station. coming to you this hour only on x.m. and sirius and coming to you of course on current tv in every corner, every little cranny and neighborhood, every town and city of america. great to be with you today! so good to have you with us. thanks so much for joining us. we look forward to hearing from you about what you thought last night about clint eastwood, what you thought about marco rubio. sorry.

rubio. and what you thought about mitt romney as well. 1-866-55-press. of course the toll free number. look forward to hearing from you and taking your calls. we have the whole team assembled here this morning. peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hi, there. >> hi, bill. >> bill: cyprian bowlding. we have to wait a year before you get the microphone, so cyprian is still in his training stage. >> probationary period. >> bill: that's right. we're going to get him talk. we do have to say quickly, before we get into the events of last night that there are still remnants of storm isaac i guess is all we call it right now. quickly faded from a hurricane category but now there are two challenges. the first is cleaning up after the mess. mitch landrieu, mayor of new orleans says we're on top of it. >> now that the west is behind us we have -- now that the worst is behind us, we have

planned grovively and we have moved into the streets aggressively to clean up. >> bill: what a contrast between mitch landrieu and the former mayor and the former governor under katrina. >> no kidding! >> bill: you know, this guy is in charge! he is on it! democrat or republican, doesn't matter. he's a good democrat but he's on the job. bobby jindal, the other problem i guess i should say is there's this levee that i think the levee is in mississippi but could break and then flood parts of plaquemines parish and bobby jindal telling people if you haven't already gotten out maybe now is a good time to do it. >> don't wait for news to come about the dam. if you live in those areas, now is the time to get yourself and your family out of harm's way. >> bill: if you're below the dam, you don't want to wait to hear on the radio "the dam just broke." >> unbelievable what they have

to go through. they're intentionally breaching the levee to take the water pressure off the dam so it doesn't break. >> it is such a crazy system. but it is a way of life down there. >> bill: absolutely. these people live below sea level. i think they're amphibians. >> give them a couple more thousand years they'll evolve. >> bill: they know how to get out. when i grew up in delaware, every summer, there was a flood that came up to -- we lived two blocks up from the river. every summer you could count on the flood that would come up the hill right to the intersection below our house. and the houses below that, they were just used to once a year, they got flooded. >> wow. >> bill: they never moved. the rest of the time, they were close to the river, they were having a good time. >> my house would have to flood one time for me to start thinking about moving out of there. like if it flooded with any regularity at all, i would head for the hills!

>> bill: i can still remember people going in boats to go to their houses. >> that's mind-boggling. >> bill: people learn to live with it, i guess. man, we gotta get right to it. last night. jamal simmons is going to be here. we'll check in on mars with a representative of nasa and check in on the new cafe standards. can't forget that. a big announcement by the obama administration this week. but mostly, it is last night in tam tampa. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this friday. the boardwalk in new jersey -- >> bill: where? >> seaside heights new jersey. >> bill: a lot of syllables there. >> may soon return to normalcy as mtv canceled jersey shore yesterday. >> bill: no! >> stop it! are you serious? >> the upcoming sixth season which starts in october will be the last for snooki, the

situation. jersey shore is one of the most popular reality programs in history. last year peaking at nine million viewers that regularly beated the brood cast network. now that snooki is a mom the nature of the show would continue too much for it to continue on its successful track. >> bill: i'm stunned. i really am. >> maybe there is hope for society afterall. a lot of people are saying that. >> robin roberts temporarily said good-bye to "good morning america" yesterday. the abc anchor going on medical leave for her treatment of mds. abc announcing a rotating cast for fill-in hosts that will sit next to george stephanopoulos during her absence includes katie couric kelley ripa and chris rock among others. >> chris rock? >> tough to replace robin roberts. >> a lot fewer people are watching the republican national convention compared to four years ago. media bistro reports the nielsen ratings for the second night

when paul ryan spoke were down by 17 million people compared to the same night four years ago when sarah palin took the stage. 17 million viewer of all the networks combined. 17 million less people watching this thing. >> bill: paul ryan not as sexy as sarah palin. >> apparently not. >> bill: i can't believe it. >> that's a big number. >> bill: that's a big jump. big loss. well gets back to my point is we need to dump the conventions put them down to one day, one night. anyhow, last night was the big night, in fact, you know. and it turned out the big night was the big bust! and the big story of course was the mystery guest who who was the colossal jerk that came up with this idea of inviting clint eastwood. what a monumental embarrassment! you know what? great actor.

great director. a great american. i don't care. he's had a great career. i've met him a few times. and you know, he was okay as mayor of carmel, california. but it is such a beautiful small little city that operates on tourism the mayor doesn't have much to do there except go out to the -- i think it is the hog's breath bar which is the bar he owns in carmel city and greet the tourists who come by. he invited clint eastwood. they turned the stage over to him. i hope you saw part of this. he was unscripted. everybody else was scripted. he was unscripted. he took a chair out which pretended to be barack obama sitting in the chair so he has this conversation with barack obama. and he went on and on and on. he was like your 89-year-old grandfather sitting at the thanksgiving table who tells story after story after story and won't shut up. but this was prime time. he screwed mitt romney and all of the republicans -- he talked 15 minutes rambled, i should

say for 15 minutes and he said some things which frankly didn't belong on prime time like this imaginary conversation now with barack obama about what obama wanted clint eastwood to tell mitt mitt romney to do. >> i'm not going to shut up. it's my turn. so anyway, we got -- we're going to have -- we're going to have to have a little chat about that. and then i just wondered -- all these promises and i wondered about you know, when the -- what? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. [ laughter ] >> bill: of course that's what dick cheney told pat leahy to do on the floor of the united states senate. he tells -- you hear the crowd laughing? they're clueless, that group in there. they didn't realize what a fool

he was making of himself and of them. and so he comes back to the same joke himself about himself just a couple minutes later. >> you could still -- maybe a smaller one maybe not that big gas guzzler to go around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that. [ laughter ] you're an ecological man. why would you want to drive that truck around? okay. anyway. all right. i'm sorry. i can't do that to myself either. anyway. >> bill: whoa! this is the republican party! this is the christian right party and he's talking about -- performing the unperformable act. and then finally he gets around to his big endorsement. here it is. this is why they brought the mystery guest out. they turn the entire convention over to clint eastwood so we

could hear this ringing endorsement of mitt romney. >> and whatever interests they have is not strong enough. and i think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. >> bill: possibly now it may be time for somebody else. >> maybe possibly could be time. >> bill: somebody whom we won't name, right? so they finally dragged him offstage and then little marco rubio -- it was sort of like granddad to your 4-year-old nephew. marco rubio takes the stage. did he a good job actually. he's a very attractive candidate. he should have been the vice presidential nominee and romney might have a chance. any rate, he is building up now. he's building up to we are the generation that's going to make a difference because here's one of the things we did. listen carefully. >> we chose more government instead of more freedom.

we chose the principles of our founding to solve the challenges. >> bill: we chose more government instead of more freedom. yeah, the looks of the people in the crowd were like what? what? we did? and then finally, it was mitt romney's turn. i gotta tell you, and he, of course is happy to be the nominee. he's been fighting for it for six years. >> mr. chairman and delegates i accept your nomination for president of the united states. [ cheering ] >> bill: all right. so let's talk about what did you think about mitt? i gotta tell you he spent most of his time trying to prove he's just an average guy. he's just like you and me. grandson of immigrants. we got married. we didn't have much money. we raised our kids. we went to church. we helped the kids in school. ann helped them with their homework. look, i'm sorry. i don't care how much they try

to paint mitt romney as an average guy he's just not! there's nothing wrong with that. but he's not! his father might have started out with not much money but mitt was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. his father was governor. his father was a very wealthy automobile executive. and just admit it. he goes all the fancy prep schools and all of the fancy colleges and he had -- you know, he was a guy as he said, when you need tuition or something you turn around and ask your daddy to give you a big check. and the other thing i thought about mitt i don't care how hard he tries he's just stiff and uncomfortable. do you notice he stood there in his suit with his suit jacket button he never raised his hand. he delivered all of these lines. very syrupy lines about his mother and... but without any passion. without any emotion. just a cold, robotic figure. i don't care how hard he tries. the big thing to me was -- and

here's how this one last clip. here's how he ended when he says like stand up with me and we'll sort of make this happen. >> now is the moment when we can stand up and say i'm an american. i make my destiny. we deserve better. my children deserve better. my family deserves better. my country deserves better. [ cheering ] >> bill: uh, okay. but like what is he really saying? if you listen to mitt last night, he said nothing really about what -- he said nothing about what he would -- where he would take this country. what he would do for this country. he did two things. tried to paint himself an average guy which he failed and attack barack obama. and so my take away from this whole speech last night was that he's got nothing to offer. really. seriously. mitt romney has nothing to offer. no plan, no agenda. no vision. no ideas. he is fueled by one thing alone. and that's what he's trying to stoke up. hatred of barack obama. they're depending on building

and whipping up hatred for barack obama. "the obama hate machine," you saw it in action last night. that's all they got. 1-866-55-press. i know, you had to stay up like i did and watch this damn circus. clint eastwood, marco rubio mitt romney, fair game this morning. by the way so is paul ryan who got a lot of -- a lot of criticism yesterday for all of the lies he told the night before. 1-866-55-press the toll free number. let's get right into it. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct.

(vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >> announcer: heard around the

country and seen on current tv >> i'll start it. you finish it. go ahead. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: yeah, how do you like it? you've been fighting for six years, right to become the republican nominee. you finally get the nomination. it is your big night. you got the world stage. everybody's waiting to hear from you. and what do you do? for 15 minutes, you turn it over to this bumbling clown clint eastwood. i hadn't seen him for a long time. i didn't realize how much he has failed. >> he doesn't look that good. >> bill: he doesn't look that good and he was not -- he was not clicking on all burners there. >> the entertainment world and hollywood is a little more insulated than the world of politics so he can get away with this stuff in hollywood. you can't in politics. >> bill: no, not at all. i gotta tell you two quick things. check my column,

billpressshow.com about paul ryan. latest column just up called paul ryan prevaricator in chief. also the big thing about again, we mention about how stiff mitt romney is last night. yesterday, new gallup poll came out. among their findings, who do you find more likable? barack obama or mitt romney? this is just yesterday morning. barack obama 54%. mitt romney, 31%. that's a key key test. forget about what they say about this race is tied, neck and neck. who do you like more and that's how people vote. 41 obama. 31 romney. arley is calling from california. >> caller: i'm so delighted to talk to you. one of the things that romney said that i think he shouldn't have said was he said are we better off than we were four years ago. and by every measure we're better off now than we were. >> bill: thank you.

he flat out said, nobody can say they're better off today than they were four years ago. that's b. s. the first month of barack obama being president or the last month of george bush, i'm sorry being president 800,000 jobs lost, right? and now every month for the last 26 months, it has been over 100,000 new jobs. >> caller: plus the stock market is up. real estate is recovering. g.m. and chrysler and ford are healthy. six million jobs that would have been lost under a romney presidency. have been saved. every measure that we've got. >> bill: you've got it. he just flat out said, right to that crowd and of course they loved it, nobody can say they're better off today than they were four years ago. the hell they can't! there are millions and millions of americans. think of all of the millions of americans who now have health insurance and could buy it when they could not before because of pre-existing conditions. america is better off under barack obama.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." to kill in the first place. basically a conspiracy leaving our national security at risk. >> bill: well, you know, that was a david stockman theory, cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey, it is 33 minutes after the hour now. here we go on the "full court press." brought to you -- we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and brought to you today by the national education association. the good men and women of the nea under president dennis van roekel creating great public schools for every student. teaches under attack of course by these republicans. we saw down in tampa. and you can find out more about

the nea by going to nea.org. we're talking about the big night last night at the convention with clint eastwood stealing the show. followed by marco rubio and of course that guy -- what was that guy that clint eastwood endorsed? >> mitchell something? >> bill: willard we don't know. your call is welcome at 1-866-55-press. again, check out my latest column the prevaricator in chief, paul ryan at billpressshow.com. back to your calls in just a second here. but first, i know a lot of you and it is true, there are several speakers who made the point last night people are hurting these days. if you're one of them and looking for some extra money at the end of the month, here's something you ought to check out. incomeathome.com. you've heard me talk about them before. they're america's leading work from home business affiliated with multi-million dollar company doing business in over 80 countries. this is something you can do. you can literally earn money on your own computer from your own

kitchen table 24/7. so at least check it out. if you're sick of living paycheck to paycheck, worried about job security or retirement if your dream is to earn some extra income from home part-time or full time, income at incomeathome.com, they're adding my listeners in record numbers giving away $1,000 to somebody just for checking them out. could be you! check them out at incomeathome.com. incomeathome.com. a little flavor i think of what happened in tampa. i just noticed on msnbc they're doing the wrap-up of the republican convention. this morning as we speak. the headline on the screen is rnc take away 2016 wide open. if that's a message coming out of tampa 2016 is wide open, you

know what that means they're not counting on winning in 2012. that's what people are coming away from tampa with. 2016 is wide open with rubio and ryan and jeb bush and the others but they're not putting much hope in mitt. joey is out in chicago. what do you say? >> caller: yesterday, the dumb the dumber and the just plain senile on tv. i can't believe the republican party put that senile old man up there. >> bill: isn't it incredible? what were they thinking? >> caller: it's incredible. by the way they still have no policies for middle class. >> bill: here's the other thing, joey, romney said last night, unlike president obama i will not raise taxes on the middle class right? obama has given the middle class a tax cut part of the stimulus, right? half of the stimulus was a tax cut for 95% of americans. his policy is to lower taxes on 98% of americans and raise them on the top 2%.

>> caller: good luck with that one. >> bill: romney lies just as much as paul ryan. >> caller: oh, yeah. everybody knows it, bill. this ain't no secret. we all know he's lying. >> bill: always good to hear from you joey. barbara is in venice, florida. good morning. >> caller: good morning, how are you? >> bill: all right. did you stay up late last night? >> caller: yes. i forced myself to watch it. >> bill: i know. it was tough duty. what do you think? >> caller: i just want to comment. he said he was going to create 20 million jobs. that would be about 250,000 jobs a year if he was in for four years. how is he going to do that? romney. >> bill: i think he said 12 million. but at any rate, how is he going to do it is the real question. paul ryan and i have a plan to create 12 million jobs. that's all he says, period. ends there. crazy. >> caller: no solution. just end the problem all the time. the other comment was we were going to be energy independent

by -- >> bill: 2020 he said. you know what? i think he means they're going to allow drilling in the washington mall or something. everything goes. again, he doesn't say how. he doesn't say any plan, right? >> caller: no, it's just -- we have global warming. we have a climate change. that fracking is very dangerous. >> bill: in fact, barbara it's agree -- i agree with you on the fracking. what was it he said last night? president obama promised he was going to save the planet. i promise i'm going to help your family. it's just an insult to the intelligence to listen to these guys. and those idiots in the hall who just -- you know, have an orgy every time somebody throws some little nonsensical line like that. let's jump out to alameda

california. the great east bay. hello, karl, good morning. >> caller: hey, i'm here. >> bill: all right. >> caller: you got to the elephant in the room that i was bitching about. that man he brought up -- i got folks down there in louisiana who are in harm's way and this man's ridiculing obama for his stance on global warming at the same time people are in trouble. he's dismissing he's caring about families. so he doesn't care about families at all. >> bill: he says he cares about families. what about all of the families that lost their jobs and their income and their retirement from bain capital right? >> caller: exactly. he pushed them out the door. and they made millions of dollars off these people getting out the door. he doesn't care about those families. and as far as -- i wish he would honor his mother and father. his mother was pro-choice. his father -- put out 12 years of his tax returns. why don't you stand up by doing

the same thing. i get your honesty about it but you need to stand up and be like them. >> bill: well said, karl. >> caller: he was pro-choice in '94 and his mother was pro-choice and if she had that much of a profound affect on the way he was, why did he change his mind? >> bill: yeah. >> caller: i don't believe it. >> bill: i got it, karl. i was glad he saluted his mother last night but mitt romney is not the son of his mother and father in terms of where he is politically. he has let himself be led -- taken as far right as the tea party could possibly cake him and the most radical fringe elements of the party including paul ryan whom he put on the ticket. this whole thing about oh, man i'm so pro-woman. some of my best friends are women. my mother, why wife, my chief of staff when i was in

massachusetts. that does not get around the fact that his policies are very, very harmful to women. getting rid of obama care. getting rid of medicare. getting rid of medicaid. across the board. his policies would be devastating to american women. sean in livermore, california. good morning. >> caller: something about that -- >> bill: here we go. >> caller: so you know, i think there is some interesting truth in here somewhere. i find it very interesting that the party that, you know, rails on about the hollywood elite and the california liberal you know has had clint eastwood steal the show tonight. what was it? four years ago they had lieutenant dan and it's the only party that, you know, has put forward an actor as president. their idol and hero ronald reagan. >> bill: here's what i was

wondering. obviously they did no dress rehearsal with clint eastwood. they had no idea what he was going to do. >> caller: would they have better luck if they had just rolled out the chimpanzee instead? >> bill: yeah, probably. >> caller: isn't that what all of these actors have in common? they hate us all unless you've acted with the chimpanzee. >> bill: i was wondering while clint was out there, what was going on backstage? because you could see that stage -- and there was no way that -- there was nobody from the sidelines that you could get his eye get his attention or something and say hey come on, because he's way out there on that podium. and they just -- there was -- they would have had to physically walk out and tap him on the shoulder and say it's time to go, right? and they couldn't do that. i gotta tell ya. i'll bet there was some serious

talking to after that thing was over last night. mitt romney said what! you did what! too late by that time. all right. hey, more calls about last night. clint eastwood, marco rubio mitt romney. we'll take a quick look at the new cafe standards announced by the obama administration. he is doing something about global warming. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and

online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

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.

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. it is all over.

the republican national convention. and ended with a -- a big embarrassment. clint eastwood stealing the show last night. we'll take more calls about that and mitt romney's acceptance speech at 1-866-55-press. but first, there was some other important news this week. most important i think, was the announcement by the obama administration that they have set strict, new fuel economy goals for american cars. james healey is the automobile writer for "usa today." joining us on our news line this morning. hey, james good to have you with us. thank you. >> thanks. good to be here. >> bill: so the obama administration is saying by 2025, we can hit an average 54.5 miles per gallon. as joe biden might say that's a bfd, isn't it? a big leap. >> it is a great big leap. you have to keep a couple of things in mind though. first, it is not a recommendation. it is, in fact, a regulation.

>> bill: oh, really? >> must do it. the auto industry, everything it sells has to come out as an average 54.5. but that's a latter number. it is not going to be what you see on your window sticker. >> bill: i'm sorry. it is a what number? >> a laboratory number. >> bill: got it. okay. >> the government then makes an adjustment to that for the number you see on the window sticker of new cars and it is lower. so what you'll see is maybe 39 or 40. and combine city highway driving. that would be the rating on new cars on the lot. still a pretty big number though. >> bill: does it include cars and trucks? >> yes, it does. that means pickups are going to have to really hustle to get in that direction. >> bill: where are we today? >> today it's 29.7 and it goes to 35.5 in 2016 by previously-announced

regulations. so 35.5 to 54.5 is the leap that they're looking at. >> bill: is it 35.5 to 39.5 as you indicated? >> well, no, because the 39.5 is apples to apples, that would be the 54.5. >> bill: now what is the -- what are the automobile manufacturers saying about this? >> it will be tough. it will be expensive but they'll figure out a way to do it. we'll see this as consumers smaller engines with turbochargers, lighter cars, maybe a little bit weird shaped, a little long and narrow maybe. >> bill: really? i was going to ask you like what kind of a car do we envision? does this mean more electric cars? and cars that people can afford? or what does it mean? you go into the showroom to kick the tires, what are you looking at? >> you might be kicking the batteries, i guess. yeah more electric cars.

they will not become the mainstream but there will be a lot more of them than there are now because they're only -- you can actually go buy. and those are expensive. electric car is $40,000 or so. and there's a government tax credit that knocks the price down and so on but it's still $33,000, $34,000 for something that the size that you would expect to maybe be 26,000 or so. >> bill: so there are some fuel efficient cars out there today. american-made or whatever. but there are also cars out there like -- you can still get your humvee and you can still get your lincoln navigator or your cadillac escalade. are they going to have to -- everybody's gotta meet this standard right? you can't have the gas guzzler -- you don't have the choice of a gas guzzler anymore is that correct? >> well, not exactly. because it's an average. that 54.5 is an average.

it is cafe -- corporate average fuel economy. so within a company there can be more and less fuel efficient vehicles. >> bill: okay. so if one gets over 55 then they could have one that gets 25 or something. >> yeah. probably won't be that dramatic but yes. and each vehicle in effect, has a target and it has to increase -- cars have to increase 5% a year. trucks 3.5%. and then that truck when it accelerates near the end of this period so it can catch up to cars. >> bill: is this effective immediately, james? >> yeah. the regulations we have in place now go out to 2016 and end. so this is for the period 2017 through 2025. >> bill: james healey is our guest, automotive writer for "usa today." you can follow his work at usatoday.com. final question, i guess which is

when this all kicks in, are we going to look back and say why did we wait so long? why did it take so long to get here? could we have done this technologically earlier? >> we might have been able to but it certainly would have been more expensive to have done it earlier. we're now learning things about batteries, for example and about how to make the internal combustible gasoline engine more efficient. the technologies are coming into place that will make this easier than it would have been five, 10 20 years ago. >> bill: james big news, important news i think for the planet as well as for american consumers. thanks so much for your time this morning james. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> bill: let's take a finalú word here from larry new britain, connecticut on last night's festivities in tampa. what do you say? >> caller: good morning, bill.

i would like to -- thank clint eastwood first of all. i've always admired his work. >> bill: i have, too. >> caller: he's a republican that we can really like. but i like to -- >> bill: yeah but his performance last night was pretty weird larry. >> caller: yeah. but i would like to thank him for his endorsement for obama care and medicare first of all. and also for the super bowl ad. >> bill: yes. >> caller: that he gave us. and then next, as far as mitt romney goes, he has a jobs plan. he has plans but he doesn't want anybody to know what they are. >> bill: well, he hasn't told us anymore about his jobs plan than he's told us about his tax returns indeed. by the way i'm glad larry mentioned the super bowl ad. i think more people will remember the super bowl ad and the influence by the super bowl ad than by his performance last

night. the super bowl ad was pro-obama. last night was god who knows. >> who knows what that was last night. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way

as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any >> announcer: take your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: okay. now some comments on facebook. and our e-mail this morning brought to you by wrigley orbitz gum. clean up that dirty mouth

feeling with orbitz. eat, drink and chew orbit gum! i posted on facebook last night my strong disagreement with michael moore's comments to "huffington post" that mitt romney is bound to win this election. but this says. >> i agree with michael moore. the republicans have all the pieces in place to steal the election. you have to be an idiot to not realize how intelligent michael moore is. leslie jones says bill, you said exactly what i was thinking. what's moore doing to help us overcome the financial disadvantage? why give up the fight now. joe perry adds michael moore has to be the center of attention. take a walk, mike! and barbara landau says boo hiss, get real, michael moore. get out the vote. this is turncoat behavior on your part. you should be ashamed of yourself. let's face it. michael moore is an idiot!

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. happy friday. it is friday, august 31. and the republican national convention is over! welcome to the "full court press" this morning. we'll take a look back, of course, at what happened last night with clint eastwood and marco rubio and mitt romney, center stage. thanks for joining us this morning. we look forward to taking your calls, too at 1-866-55-press. but in addition to the folks we

saw last night paul ryan is still the center of attention. still getting a lot of flak for all of the lies he told in his acceptance speech on wednesday evening. the fact checkers say he told at least six big fat lies but the romney campaign is saying we don't care about the fact checkers, we'll tell all of the lies we want. we'll talk more about that and a whole lot more here on the "full court press." but first today's latest, the current news update from lisa ferguson in los angeles. good morning again. >> good morning everyone. it seems even mitt romney does not want to talk about mitt romney. that pretty apparent after his speech last night. after formally accepting the g.o.p. nomination, romney talked little about his own policy but a lot about how bad he thinks president obama is for the economy. >> you know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. >> obviously romney's main message is not that he is the

best solution. just that the current president isn't working. as for what romney did say about his own policy, he promised jobs. 12 million over the next four years. according to think progress, romney would actually kill 360,000 jobs in the next year alone. that is because his plan includes things like tax incentives for companies that outsource jobs to other countries. and here are a few other things romney does not want you to know about his economic plan. these are coming from think progress as well. for one, it gives the massive tax cut to corporations and the rich. he says he will balance those cuts by closing tax loopholes except he can't name which one. he would also raise taxes on the middle class a tax center policy analysis found a family of four could pay as much as $4,000 more under romney. and he's also promised to balance the budget but his plan will not do that either if he does not go for massive spending

cuts or tax increase on the middle class he'll add more than $10 trillion to the national debt. more bill coming up. stay with us! (vo) every news network will cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. brought to you by: communications workers of america. bring jobs home now.

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: the circus is over! in tampa. and the chief clown turned out to be clint eastwood. why did they do that? hello, everybody. what do you say? happy friday. last day of august. august 31, 2012. thank you for being part of the "full court press" here on current tv and on your local progressive talk radio station. whether you're listening or

watching, good to have you with us this morning. and you can always make your listening and viewing experience all the more exciting by joining our chat room. go to current.com. follow the click, join the chat room and join your fellow "full court pressers" across the land and you can have your own conversation back and forth about what we're talking about here on the air because it is impossible to take all of your calls, as much as we would like to. but do try. 1-866-55-press to get through because we would love to hear from you. we know you have a lot to say about clint eastwood and marco rubio and mitt romney last night. what do you say peter ogborn and dan henning good to see you. >> happy friday. >> bill: i'm glad to see friday come. cyprian bowlding our videographer. we'll be live on the scene in charlotte, broadcasting live with stephanie miller. she will be there, too. from radio row at the democratic

national convention. starting tuesday morning. we'll have a special labor day show on labor day. >> this will be a first for us to do the tv/radio show somewhere else. >> bill: to do the tv show from somewhere else. tv/radio show from somewhere else. i hope they remember the cameras. >> you packed those right? >> bill: they're in my carry on. >> don't forget those. >> bill: and i'm looking forward to seeing charlotte. i've only been to charlotte one other time. i want to discover that city. i have a cousin down there. she's going to take me pretty well. peter, you know charlotte pretty well? >> it is nice to know people on the ground to help move you around especially when a lot of the city is on sort of lockdown the way that it does for a convention. >> indeed. >> so, as a measure last night -- as i mentioned, clint eastwood stealing the show unscripted. they put him out there

unscripted. supposed to be out there for five minutes. he stayed for 15. they couldn't get him off the stage. you can be damn sure if they had vetted his speech, no, if you didn't see it, he's standing at the podium. he's got an empty chair alongside of him that's supposed to be barack obama sitting in that chair. so that's just a little dialogue. but i started to say if they had vetted his speech, you were damn sure they would not have let him get away with making this dick cheney-like illusion comment. >> i'm not going to shut up. it's my turn. [ laughter ] so anyway, we're going to have -- we're going to have to have a little chat about that. and then i just wondered -- all of the promises and then i wondered about -- you know -- >> bill: so embarrassing. rambling on and on. >> what do you want me to tell romney?

>> i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy. >> bill: oh, yeah. why not put chris rock up there. chris rock would have said it. >> bill: these evangelical christians laugh at the line. >> there's so much wrong with that speech. not only the fact that we realize now that romney is -- that romney is so unorganized he let this guy go up unscripted and just ramble. but also any respect that i had for clint eastwood and it was a lot, he's one of the greatest actors ever. >> bill: as right wing as he is he's always been a hero of mine. >> this is how we're going to remember him? >> bill: i've seen him in monterey carmel several times. he was on crossfire. i've always been a big fan. last night was just sad. >> it was sad all around. >> people who have been great in their career, you know, when they're like on their walker or

whatever and they can barely get two sentences together and they're wearing diapers, you don't want to see them. don't want to remember them that way. jamal simmons democratic strategist joining us in the next hour as a "friend of bill." we're also going to be checking in on mars. find out the latest from curiosity. i'm curious. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> on this friday, other headlines making news, big news at "american idol." randy jackson is out! >> no! >> he's gone as a judge. tmz reported with the headline "the dog days are over" but he's not leaving the show completely. he will still act as a mentor to contestants in episodes. he was the last original judge from when the show started ten years ago. >> bill: big mistake. all of the new people bringing them in at least you had randy there. >> i don't know who the judges are. >> mariah carey is the new judge that's signed to a contract. but rumor has it nicki minaj is

99% there to sign her deal. also keith urban and kanye west are in top consideration. >> bill: kanye west? >> looks like they'll have four judges. >> bill: i'll never watch that dumb show again. >> what a weird move! >> bill: take us back to randy and paula and simon. ya know? >> paula really? >> bill: yes. >> she was half the reason i ever watched. you never know what the hell she was going to say. >> bill: she was crazy but she was really good. >> in sports a surprise announcement from american tennis star andy roddick at the u.s. open. he's retiring. yesterday was his 30th birthday. he felt it is a fitting time to call it a day, not knowing if he was healthy enough or committed enough to go another year. he's still playing in the open this week. not kicked out yet. he won the open back in 2003. he has earned over $20 million playing the sport. his win nine years ago was the last time an american man won a grand slam single title. >> bill: he's 30.

time to get out of the way. >> and they say obama is bad for the economy. 30-year-olds are retiring. >> look up in the sky tonight and you'll see a full moon. it is a blue moon. not in color, of course. that refers to the rare case when we get two full moons in one month. the last one was august 1st. the next blue moon will not happen until 2015 according to our friends at nasa. >> bill: i saw the full moonwalking in this morning. it is beautiful. that's what a blue moon is? two full moons in the same month. >> bill: never knew that. or else i forgot it. >> only happens once in a blue moon. >> bill: all right. hey, dan, thank you so much. all right. want to take a quick break here. we'll get back to the convention in a little bit. but take a quick break here. talk about something else that's very much in the news. and that's a new book. it is a new book called "no easy

day" and this book is -- you probably heard about it. it is making a lot of noise. this is a book written by one of the navy seals who was part of the operation back in may 2011 that got osama bin laden and brought him to justice. it was a great mission. it was brilliantly executed. it was a mission that was put in place from the very beginning of his administration by president obama himself. giving that direction to the c.i.a. c.i.a. did a great job of -- took him a couple of years to track osama bin laden down. they found him in that compound of his that mansion in -- what was the name of that town? in pakistan? i'm blanking on it. it wasn't islamabad.

>> abat bad. >> bill: brilliantly carried out by the navy seals. and we heard a lot about it. we heard the official count from the pentagon. this one navy seal now is out with a book where he tells a slightly different account. his name is -- the book is allegedly written by a navy seal called mark owen. his real name -- i don't see any reason not to tell you his real name. he has been identified. cbs which did an interview with him on "60 minutes" will play a little bit of that -- we'll play a little bit of that for you in a second. declines to give his real name but i think fox news and certainly associated press the story i have in front of me have identified him as mark bizinet. if he wrote the book, i don't see any reason for not giving his name. the headlines about the book

have been that mark biznet navy seal writes this book about this raid on osama bin laden's compound and he tells a different story than the official story that we had heard from the pentagon. and the difference is that the official count told us that the seals charged upstairs and they entered the bedroom and there was osama bin laden with one of his wives and he had a gun and he pointed the gun at the navy seal and they shot and killed him. bizinet and he said he was the guy in back of the point man it didn't quite happen that way. the way it happened was they were going up the stairs and a guy sticks his head around the corner of the bedroom door, looking to see who's coming up the stairs. and the point man shot osama bin laden in the head and when they enter the bedroom there's

bin laden on the floor with his head -- his head blown apart. either way, as far as i'm concerned, i don't care. either way, the guy is dead. either way the navy seals did a great job. either way, we got him. but a lot of people are making a big deal over the fact that bizinet's account differs from what the pentagon officially said. bizinet has given one interview i mentioned to "60 minutes." where first of all he says they had trained and trained. they built an actual duplicate not just -- like a little model but like life-size building, exact copy of the building in abbot bod down in virginia beach, virginia. they did a dress rehearsal.

they practiced several times in the building. they did a dress rehearsal for the military brass including the head of the joint chiefs who was there watching them carry out this raid down at virginia beach. and then mark bizinet said they were told to go home and rest up. >> we had a week off at home. conducted one more rehearsal day of training on the life-size mockup. we got the word we were going. >> he said, you know, some people are going to accuse him of writing the book for political reasons. that's the last thing he said he had in mind. >> my worry from the beginning is it is a political season. this book is not political whatsoever. it doesn't badmouth either party. >> bill: but what he does in the book according to associated press, i haven't read it yet he does say that none -- reading from "the associated press," none of the seals were fans of president barack obama. they knew his administration would take credit for ordering

that raid. why not? why wouldn't they take credit? damn sure that george bush would have taken credit if he had gotten osama bin laden instead of forgetting about him. but bizinet adds after the mission, some of them -- they realize they may have just gotten obama re-elected but they respected him as commander in chief and for giving the operation the go ahead so they just -- so they went ahead and did it. love to get your take on this. 1-866-55-press. here's my big question. first of all do we know this guy is telling the truth? we shouldn't just take everything he says as gospel truth. he's not been elected as a spokesperson for those navy seals. so we don't know that he's giving the right account or that the pentagon is giving the correct account. i don't care as long as they got osama bin laden which they did. my bigger question is this. why do you believe -- do you think this guy should have been able to write this book? do you think he should have been allowed to write this book? i very strongly do not.

i think it is an outrage. i think it is a betrayal of his fellow navy seals that he quit the seals and went out and wrote this book. and i know -- i'm almost positive of this. members of the secret service take a pledge. those who are closest. those who are around the president. those who have that access to president or to a national -- like mitt romney. they take a pledge that they won't write a book about what they see and what they experience. i think it ought to be the same with the navy seals. this is a top top top secret -- top secret mission you could possibly get and they were sworn to secrecy and then this guy breaks the vow of secrecy. breaks the oath of secrecy. quits the seals and writes this book. i think it jeopardizes future missions. i think it runs the risk that for any future thing that the c.i.a. is doing or the navy seals are doing or -- you know, any of our intelligence agencies

are doing, you always have to run the risk now that somebody -- that secrecy doesn't mean anything anymore. that somebody in that operation is going to go out and write a tell-all book. i think it is disgusting and i think the guy ought to be charged with violating his oath of secrecy. i don't care what's says. the fact that he wrote this book i think is an outrage. 1-866-55-press. what's your take on it? >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current

tv. >> bill: no easy day is the name of the book by navy seal mark biz net. he was part of the mission that went out and brought justice to osama bin laden. now he has written a book about it. should he have been able to do so? his account differs from the official pentagon version. doesn't change the outcome. but what is it like to have somebody in the secret service or in the c.i.a. or the navy seals violate their oath of secrecy and oath of office? i believe and go out and write a book about it? fred from tennessee. what do you say? >> caller: good morning, bill. >> bill: good morning. >> caller: long-time listener, first-time caller. >> bill: glad to have you on board. >> caller: i just retired a couple of years ago from the military. i did over 27 years in the navy. >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i cannot believe that

a person that's supposed to be a navy seal actually got out of the military and wrote a book about a mission that he did. that's hard to believe and it is uncalled-for. i mean we're told that in order to write a book, we have to get permission. >> bill: he did not by the way. you have to have the book reviewed for classified information. he bypassed the review. >> caller: also, he's putting his teammates in danger because if he comes out somebody could use him to get to his teammates. that's what i don't appreciate. >> bill: that's a real worry of mine, too fred. i'm glad you made those points. thanks for your call. priscilla in red rock, arizona. hey, priscilla. >> caller: good morning. i just want to say that mr. bizinet's book, while not treason, since he's not -- no longer a navy seal is

treasonness. like the former person that just spoke, he's put people in danger. he's made our enemies here in america -- republican party one of them. he's just made them happy. >> bill: they're trying to make a big deal of this. they sort of see this as the swift vote. swift voting of barack obama. but the outcome is the same. i mean, you know, obama gave the orders and the navy seals carried them out and we got osama bin laden. so whether they shot him in the head as he ducked his head around the door to say hello who's coming or they walked in the bedroom and got him i don't think -- frankly die think it makes any difference. i think the big issue is this guy violated all of the rules. he broke all of the rules. and i think the pentagon has got to go after him. the navy's gotta go after him and make an example out of him.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: it is 33 minutes after the hour now. friday. we love to see fridays roll around. friday, especially this one because we don't have to stay up late anymore listening to those dumb speeches from tampa florida. friday, august 31. good to have you with us here on the "full court press." back to the stories of the day. but you know, every friday we take just a minute out to salute somebody who gets things done.

and this week, we salute the good men and women of fema. under director craig fugate. what a big difference between fema on the job this year with hurricane isaac storming down and making its way to the louisiana coast, a big difference from seven years ago with fema under george w. bush and michael brown under hurricane katrina. so to the good men and women of fema to director craig fugate, job well-done! brought to you by granger with over 900,000 products to help you get your job done, call granger, click on granger.com or stop by one of their branches. granger. saluting the people who get things done indeed. well, a lot of attention last night to of course mitt romney accepting the nomination. to marco rubio introducing him to clint eastwood who kind of

stole the show, not in a good way. but still a lot of attention to paul ryan and all the -- hmm -- let's just call them what they are, outright lies in his speech on wednesday night. the organization that's been most on top of this, reporting all of truth as opposed to what we heard from the podium is media matters. media matters for america. research director jeremy holden in studio with us this morning. hey, jeremy. good to see you. >> hi, bill. thanks for having me. >> bill: so the ryan people of the campaign, hey you know, there's a lot of faces here. you just weren't telling the truth of the -- the fact checkers say that. their response was we don't care about the fact checkers right? >> that's been their line. we won't be dictated to by fact checkers. >> bill: didn't one of their pollsters say that? >> earlier this week it was

reported, they were asked about this welfare line-up that the campaign keeps putting out there. this notion that the president is gutting welfare reform, taking the work requirements out. fact checker after fact checker says it is just not true. they were asked why they keep saying it and going with this line. their pollster said we're not going to be dictated to by fact checkers. so there you go. >> bill: what does that mean? first of all let's talk about the job of the media. so you have paul ryan who gives the speech. his acceptance speech. the crowd goes wild. we're watching it. you're a reporter, you're watching it. what's your response -- and you know some of the things he's saying are just not true. take the automobile plat. he's blaming obama for the closure of this plant in janesville wisconsin when, in fact, it closed six months before president obama was elected. let alone took office. so what's the responsibility of the media when they hear a

flat-out lie? >> that will be the big question going forward. we have a campaign saying in their own words we won't be dictated to by the fact checkers. >> bill: what they're saying is we're going to continue to tell every lie we can think of. >> that's right. the journalist who is covering the campaign now they know. they know that these lies are going to continue. they claim they're going to keep making them. so the journalists should be ready. should be prepared. they're the same misstatements the same dishonest claims on repeat. so you know, the fact check is ready. it is right there for you. you know, the question then becomes how do you present that to -- how do you let the voters know that this campaign is built on one dishonest statement after another? >> bill: the -- i guess what i'm getting to is the responsibility is not just to report that paul ryan gave a barnburner of a speech. but to report that paul ryan gave a barnburner of a speech that contained x number of outright falsehoods or

misstatements or whatever you want to call them. >> yeah, that's right. i think then -- it becomes what's the lead? the lead isn't that -- is the lead that paul ryan gave a convention speech or is the lead that in his first convention -- in his first speech introducing himself to most of the voters, paying attention for the first time, it was distortion, misleading statement, lie after lie after lie. what's the lead? how does a journalist write that lead? >> bill: i'm trying to remember what a. p. i think it was called them. they didn't call them lies. remember peter, we were talking about that later? >> factual loopholes. >> bill: shortcomings. factual shortcuts. that was it. i mean what the hell. just call it a lie. >> yeah and then -- this is where the media is. do we call it a factual shortcut? a misleading statement? do we call it a lie. that's the debate we're having now. it is probably not one that the campaign wants. that's where the media is when they're told we're not going to

be dictated to by the fact checkers. >> bill: so it's paul ryan and it is also -- it is also mitt romney. and on the other side, the organizations -- you have your regular reporters. but politifact is one of the fact checkers. isn't there a factcheck.org right? >> ap has a fact check service. there's a very robust fact-checking community at this point. >> bill: noise media matters do you this on a daily basis. >> sure. >> bill: so does think progress. thinkprogress.org. so it's harder for them to get away with the lies but what they're saying is we don't care. >> right. and it puts great pressure on the media. one of the things we saw last night, you know, mitt romney was doing the rounds on the nightly news broadcasts. and you know, we saw an interview over at abc where

there's questions about his like for the -- doing the family photographs. the vice president the night before -- the vice presidential candidate the night before gives a speech that across the media is being mocked for the distortions but no questions about that. i think that becomes you know, the burden is on the media to press them on these claims and continue to press them on these claims. >> bill: by the way, did my little share my column this week, just posted this morning on our web site is paul ryan prevaricator in chief. check it out at 1-866-55-press. and again jeremy holden in studio with us. research director for media matters for america. what about this theme -- every single speaker somehow worked it in. we built it. fox news is running the republican convention. >> certainly looks that way. they more than anyone took that

speech that the president gave in virginia back in july. took it out of context distorted the meaning of the words and ran with it. from there it becomes -- we've looked at the role that fox news in particular plays and kind of shaping the republican message shaping the direction of the republican party. and i don't think there's been any clearer example of how they distort words, create a message that the party can then use. it became the convention theme. never mind the fact that once again, independent fact checkers this isn't just me saying this, a whole bunch of people that have looked at this. those words "you didn't build that" don't many what fox and the republican party are telling you that it means. >> bill: one of the speakers that they had and i believe it was media matters that i saw this was the lieutenant-governor candidate from delaware. there were several. she was one. and several speakers up there saying we built our business and you know, worthy -- we represent

the american entrepreneurial dream. almost every single one of them had substantive governmental contracts. even bain capital. >> you're talking about cher valenzuela. she gave a speech. she was talking about you didn't build that. we built that. we're supposed to be outraged a in the notion that there's a public infrastructure that exists to help businesses. not only did -- nobody should we grudge cher valenzuela of her success. she's a successful businesswoman. that's great. but part of that story is $2 million government-backed loan from the small business administration. $15 million in government contracts. and her out there counseling other businesses about the secret weapon of partnering with the government for your business success. completely undermines this fox-fueled "you didn't build that" narrative and shows the true irony behind those words. >> bill: and last night, mitt romney he didn't get into the

welfare thing but he did repeat a claim that paul ryan had made the night before that president obama stole $716 billion from medicare thereby forcing a reduction in benefits to existing recipients of medicare. and the truth is -- >> the truth is we're talking about cost savings future cost savings to medicare. reducing overpayments to hospitals. reducing the medicare -- we tried this. this 15-year experiment -- sorry, this experiment, privatization that economists say has been unsuccessful. it is getting some -- medicare advantage. we're talking about getting some waste out of the future. a program -- a move that republicans in the past have backed. medicare is still going to be there. no cuts to benefits as fact checkers have looked at and said. the campaign keeps continuing to say it over and over and over and over again. of once again they're not going to be dictated to by fact checkers. putting more pressure on the media to call them out when they

keep making these mistakes. >> nor do they mention that paul ryan, of course, has the very same $716 billion getting rid of waste and fraud and medicare in his budget which has been voted on and approved twice by house republicans. i think it is a real challenge for the media because what it says is for the next ten weeks, they're going to continue to tell those lies and every lie they can think of. and the media's got i think a choice. you either just report what they say or tell the truth. i think it comes down to that. i'm glad you're there. we'll talk more to jeremy holden and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. and i'm not convinced that the media is going to do its job. i'm afraid too many of them are just going to try to say oh, well, you know the romney campaign tells some lies but so does the obama campaign and so they're all lying. that's that false equivalency we have to be careful of. here on the "full court press" this friday morning.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

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. (vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 12 minutes to go before the top of the hour. jamal simmons democratic strategist in studio with us as a "friend of bill" in the next hour. we'll get back to the lies of paul ryan and mitt romney and the media's responsibility. but first, this story caught my attention out of "forbes" magazine. an i.r.s. employee allegedly

used information gleaned from taxpayer returns to apply for credit cards in multiple states. on one occasion, she used i.r.s. letter head to get more information from a victim. you hear a story like that and that reminds you of identity theft. how prevalent it is. and how important it is that you do something about it. i have. getting life lock ultimate protection. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection out there. and it even includes keeping track of your bank accounts. but of course, life lock can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. call now and mention press 60 for 60 risk-free days of life lock ultimate identity theft protection. if you're not happy here's the deal. you can call them again within 60 days. cancel and they'll give you a full refund. so see life lock.com for details then give them a call at

1-800-356-5967 for life lock ultimate identity theft protection. in studio with us, jeremy holden is a research director for great organization media matters. media matters.org. jeremy, you were saying that you alluded earlier. you released a study yesterday looking at how the media has dealt with these two big lies that they keep telling that president obama did away with the requirement that you move from welfare to work and the idea as we just talked that he also cut $716 billion out of today's medicare benefits. is the media doing its job in calling both of those out? >> we're seeing mixed reviews on that. you know, we broke this down into three different variables right? if these claim that independent fact checkers have said are false, if these claims are being presented without any -- any type of pushback, just the facts

as they are when they're presented as kind of like's said she said when the media presents these ads as debunked myths, lies, something along those lines and we're finding mixed results. i think maybe the least surprising but maybe the most depressing finding is how infrequently fox news is pointing out the lies and the distortions. >> bill: surprise, surprise, right? you expect that from fox. i would hope we would get something different from a. p. or cnn or "usa today" or "the new york times" or the post. >> sure. what we found -- i think one of the more surprising things was the a. p. and particularly with the medicare lie. less than half the time are they pointing out the claims have been debunked by independent fact checkers. even when we're seeing a he said, she said, they're all arguing over facts when

independent fact checkers have looked at these and said these are at best, distortions, at worst, outright lies. >> bill: doug is calling from staten island. thanks for joining us. >> caller: good morning. thanks very much for the phone call. i appreciate your program. >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i was wondering, do you guys remember the rove campaign with bush there where they said they would make their own reality. they stuck strictly to fox and they wouldn't give mainstream media any access? and i'm wondering now if basically the mainstream media has baked into the fact that romney and his crowd seem to be path logical liars they'll keep repeating it and if mainstream media wants to continue, jonathan call interview the whole team on early morning program. and he just said well, you know, "the washington post" gave you four pinocchios and the guy said we have a difference. that's all it was.

>> bill: i gotta tell you. doug, you hit a sore spot for me. i wouldn't count on jonathan karl to ask an honest question. i wouldn't count on him to challenge anything the right-wingers say frankly. i don't even watch abc news. i think they're all in the tank for the romney campaign. but hey, doug, just in the interest of time, i really appreciate the call. jeremy, just a final comment on what doug said. that is the problem right? their job is to challenge. if they don't challenge they'll lose their jobs, as far as i'm concerned. >> right. they're providing a public service. i think -- you know, we live in cynical times. i think people do have this notion, both sides do, they're all stretching the truth. they're all trying to create a certain reality. one commenter looked at the paul ryan piece we were talking about earlier asked if this was the most dishonest convention speech ever. so we're looking at kind of pushing into new bounds -- new area of stretching the truth and dishonesty. and again, just saying that we're not going to be dictated

to by the fact checkers. it is a real challenge for the media. >> bill: it shows where they're coming from. they're saying we're going to lie, lie lie lie and catch us if you can! the media has to do its job. media matters is certainly doing its job. thanks, jeremy for being here and thank you for everything you're doing at media matters. >> thanks for having me, bill. >> bill: we'll be right back. i'll tell what you the president is up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." [ normal voice ] same agent and everything. it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ ♪ ask an allstate agent about the value plan. are you in good hands?

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 ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. jamal simmons will be here as a "friend of bill" for the next hour. president obama on the road again today. not on a campaign trip this

time. a very important mission. president obama going down to fort bliss texas. and on the two-year anniversary of the end of our combat mission in iraq, the president is going to hold a roundtable discussion down there with service members and military families. he's also going to speak to the troops at fort bliss. focusing, according to the white house, on how part of ending wars responsibly demands standing by those who have served. very important message. very important mission. to fort bliss texas. on this important day. president will be back at the white house tonight at 8:00 p.m. and jay carney will be gaggling with reporters on air force i so there will be no briefing at the white house today. more about last night's acceptance speech by mitt romney and the weird performance of clint eastwood.

on my crunchy onion chicken because it's america's number one brand. just minutes to make, then bake!

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. it is friday, august 31. and this is the "full court press" here on current tv. i'm bill press. host of the "full court press." your only progressive morning show anywhere on cable television. we certainly have lots to talk about. including the fact that the circus is over. they're folding up the big tent down in tampa florida after turning over the stage last night to geriatric clint

eastwood. why they did that, we'll never figure out. mitt romney finally took the stage and we discovered once and for all that mitt romney has nothing to say nothing to offer, other than the fact that he hates barack obama and he wants everybody else to hate barack obama too. that's all they've got. we'll tell you about that and a whole lot more here. but first, here we go. we start out each hour by finding out all of the latest, today's current news update, lisa ferguson standing by in los angeles. hi lisa. good morning. >> hi, bill. good morning everyone. before we wrap up the last hour of bill press we want to touch on one more misleading claim coming from romney's speech last night. this one has to do with healthcare. romney, as we know, wants to repeal and replace the affordable care act and he mentioned that again in his speech last night. saying we need to reign the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. bloomberg is helping to put this one into perspective and here are the facts. it is a bit of a stretch to

connect the rising healthcare cost to the new law. for one it does not fully take effect until 2014 and for another, healthcare costs have been rising faster than inflation for years. long before the affordable care act ever took place. with medicare recently taking center stage we have been talking a lot about the $700 billion worth of cuts. romney now says he would restore that money but the congressional budget office estimates that would increase the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years. while republicans still fail to lay out exactly how they would replace the healthcare law they have talked about putting a compensation cap on patients injured by medical malpractice. that would help reduce some healthcare costs but only by .5% of yearly spending. going back to some convention news, the democrats are releasing a partial list of speakers for next week. that includes nancy pelosi, harry reid and a chair of the

congressional hispanic caucus, charlie gonzalez. back with more bill. stay with us.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. on the final night of the circus, they brought out the biggest clown. clint eastwood. oh, my god why why why! good morning everybody. here we go. august 31. friday, good to see you today. yes, the convention is over in tampa, florida. good news out of texas. judd saying that voter i.d. law is unconstitutional.

and put a hold on it. so we'll bring you up to date on what's happening there in texas in tampa around the country around the globe. we're going to take a quick look at mars in this hour and since we're talking about mars, we brought in democratic strategist -- [ laughter ] >> bill: jamal simmons to help us understand what's happening on the red planet. good morning jamal. good to see you. >> good to see you. i just got back. everything's just fine. >> boy are my arms tired. >> bill: you had a choice between tampa and mars. >> oh, i would have taken mars over tampa any day of the week. >> bill: tampa might be more extraterrestrial. good to see you today. >> you too. >> bill: nice to have you here as a "friend of bill" this whole hour. our whole team, peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey hey. >> bill: cyprian bowlding, our videographer on duty as well.

we'll be all in charlotte -- well, not all of us. >> some have to keep the home fires burning. don't forget about us. >> bill: be here to push the button so when we talk in charlotte -- >> people can hear you in america. >> such a complicated system. we let dan run it. >> bill: taking our chances. peter and i will be down in charlotte. >> i will be there. >> bill: it was interesting -- by the way, i do have to say one thing about watching this republican convention. i salute the camera people for all of the different networks. like finding a needle in a haystack was finding a black face in the crowd. and i saw a story yesterday. somebody actually stood by the door and counted -- >> oh! >> bill: they counted. how many people were there? >> 10,000. >> probably a little less. much small err convention than democrats. i went in 2008. >> bill: the unofficial count of african-americans in the

whole place 143. >> i think it probably had 2500, maybe 3,000 people there. >> that seems high. >> working here. who are they counting? >> there is a guy on twitter who is hilarious and he had this whole thing and he was calling it negro spotting at the rnc. he took a lot of grief for it. i think he's the guy. >> bill: i think he was standing by one door and somebody asked him to carry their bag. >> no! no! oh, man! >> we know about the very serious incident of them throwing peanuts at a camerawoman. >> bill: fortunately for the rnc, they jumped on that and threw them out. the woman said she wasn't surprised. she gets that treatment all the

time. >> absolutely. i remember being there in 2008 and walking through the halls it is clear you're there alone. there are not a lot of people who are -- >> the blazing saddles. >> i could make jokes but they would be inappropriate. >> bill: the big story last night, talk about a joke. oh, my god they actually turned -- here it is, his spotlight, his time and you know, to capture what he's been fighting for for six years and mitt romney turns the stage over to clint eastwood. and what he got in return was this -- not only embarrassing performance but this ringing endorsement. here it is. the ringing endorsement of clint eastwood. >> and whatever interest they have is not strong enough. and i think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. [ applause ] >> maybe. if we didn't have anything else

to do. >> bill: some guy whose name i can't remember, might be time. >> i'm sorry. where are we? >> oh, god! >> bill: why would they do that? >> it was bad. clearly, he was speaking unscripted no teleprompter. he got lost a couple of times in his own remarks. and it was a waste of prime time television. so instead of showing this beautiful tv ad they put together -- >> bill: the video never showed it. >> saw it on c-span. never made it to prime time. we saw clint eastwood rambling about the president. >> bill: we're just getting started here. we haven't talked about even mitt romney yet. you see? we'll get into that with jamal and we are going to take a time-out to talk to one of the leaders of nasa about what we've learned so far from curiosity on planet mars. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> on this friday, other headlines making news, a

boardwalk in seaside heights new jersey may soon return to a bit of normalcy as mtv has canceled jersey shore. >> no! >> it will be the last season for snooki and situation and the rest of the gang. jersey shore is one of the most popular reality programs in history. last year, pulled in nine million viewers. regularly beat the broadcast networks in its time slot. the now that snooki is a mom the nature of the show will change and it will not be able to continue on its successful journey. >> bill: snooki sleeps with the fishes. >> hallelujah. >> they should just replace the cast with chris christie. jersey shore. just have the christie family. >> sarah palin may be out of a job soon. fox news, they are not renewing her contract following her outburst on facebook this week over her appearances getting canceled by the network.

"new york" magazine is reporting that sources inside the network saying the contract may not be renewed as her star power is pretty much gone. fox reporter is paying her a million dollars a year. the contract does expire in january. >> i've heard roger does not take complaining about the internal mechanics of the network. >> bill: going public on facebook saying they canceled me? look, you and i have done a lot of television. how many times have we been canceled? >> more than you get on. >> bill: sometimes they tell you before you get there. sometimes they tell you when you get there. i've been sitting on the set and sitting in the chair when they say hey dude, change in plans. >> i was there for the entire segment. >> jamal i need you to come out of here for a second to talk about a few things. >> a milestone -- >> bill: your contract is good. >> finally a milestone for ford today. the 109-year-old car company will produce its 350 millionth

automobile. "usa today" reports it will be a ford focus coming off the line at a factory in thailand this morning. >> bill: bad news. >> it is the best selling car for the first half of this year and the reason it is happening in thailand is because the company continues to expand in asia. they're in the middle of opening nine new plants. >> you would think they would delay production in thailand for three hours to let the plant in toledo roll one off. >> exactly. >> bill: anybody in their p.r. department think this thing through? >> have a good weekend. >> bill: thank you dan. yes, indeed. so mitt romney had a big challenge last night jamal. he had to present himself to the american people and prove that he had something to say and was ready to be president of the united states. to humanize himself as a lot of people said. house he do? >> bill, i think this was the biggest political drag show i have ever seen in my entire life! it was three days of people

dressing up like a party that was inclusive a party that was unifying, a party that was looking out for women and looking out for latinos. and all of their policies are completely the opposite of that. i mean even his speech, he talked about he's still against a woman having a right to choose. they have planks in the platform for english only and against hispanic immigration. because nobody cares about the eastern european waitresses in new york city. this is about hispanic immigration for mexico. they spent the entire week pretending to be an inclusive and open-minded party and mitt romney got up there last night and talked more about how it was time to move the country forward. i think we are at a pi otal moment in this country. it is about where we go. the question is are we going to go together or are we going to go with everybody going to their corners and fighting each other over where we are? i think that's what's dangerous about who the republicans are catering to. >> bill: it seems to be that their entire -- they're hinging

everything on the fact that they can convince everybody that all the excitement that you had around president obama four years ago you don't feel as excited today because things haven't been as great as we anticipated that they might be so therefore throw him out and give me a chance, right? in other words i haven't heard them offer anything other than disappointment or hatred for barack obama. >> absolutely right. i think the president's team has very good and very effective very early defining mitt romney and his policies and now paul ryan as being against the interest of working people, against the interest of women. against the interest of latinos. you're seeing that in the polling numbers about how it is all shaped up for the romney team. >> bill: to put numbers on that, gallup was out yesterday. just yesterday the very day that mitt romney gave his acceptance speech. and among the questions they ask, likable which one do you mind more likable? barack obama 54%.

mitt romney, 31%. davening that he -- which one do you think cares for people like you? mainly 98% of americans. barack obama 52%. mitt romney, 36%. what do the numbers mean? >> that means people don't have trust -- when mitt romney is left alone in the oval office, when the cameras are off, he's going to make a decision in the interest of their families. so maybe he's a good manager of corporate businesses but he's a good manager on behalf of the stockholders and shareholders, not on behalf of the workers who have to earn $20 an hour, $15 an hour. >> bill: how do you square this with all of these polls show that on the national level it's 47-47 or 46-44 or something. >> let's remember, john mccain in 2008 got 47% of the vote when barack obama was like a god walking on earth. he will never be as popular as he was in the fall of 2008.

and john mccain got 47%. so that's pretty much the floor for any republican is 47%. you will argue over the last 4%. there are probably enough people who are dissatisfied that that number is going to be a little close which is why it is a tough fight to the finish for the president. >> bill: does this likability factor in people when they decide how to vote, let's say if they haven't made up their mind? >> likability is a part of the trust question. ultimately, people are trying to figure out which one of these two guys i don't trust politicians in general but between which of these two guys can i trust the most to make the decision for my family. you can be -- people didn't like george bush, didn't like the positions he had on the war. they agreed with john kerry more on a variety of different policy issues. saw poll after poll where they agreed with john kerry on the economy, foreign policy but they trusted george bush. they thought that george bush had their interests at heart. >> bill: the old thing about which one would you rather have a beer with?

>> it is part of the trust thing. >> bill: which gets to the question of humanizing mitt romney. he spent a lot of time last night -- so did ann of course, before that and marco rubio trying to prove that he's just one of the guys. he's just like you and me. he's an average guy. they had kids. and they had to help them with their homework and they go to church on sunday and i don't think he sold it. i'm sorry. he doesn't look like an average guy. he doesn't sound like one and he is not one right? >> his father was the president of american motors. he went to one of the most elite private schools in the country cranbrook, as a kid and then went to harvard business school. you know, this guy did not start off in the dugout. did he start off on second base at least. then he turned around and came in home. >> bill: i don't know why they just don't accept that, right? try to prove otherwise. >> i riv when i left school and started working on the first political campaign my dad gave

me $200 and a good piece of advice. that was my go out and get them, tiger, call me if you need me. there wasn't a lot more cash coming after that. for most americans who finish school and go out in the world they gotta kind of make it -- they may live at home in the basement while they get their first job and they keep things moving. they don't see that same story in mitt romney. >> bill: i want you to know that $200 you got that's $200 more than i got from my dad. >> you had to pay your dad money when you left. >> bill: god love him. he gave me all of the encouragement he could. they didn't have it. and paid for me to go to catholic high school. paid that tuition. in terms of anything more than that it just wasn't there. we're going take a quick break. when we come back, jamal simmons is our guest. jamalsimmons.com. he has his own web site there or you can follow him on twitter at jamalsimmons. michael moore says mitt romney is going to win.

we may as well get used to saying president mitt romney. is this a good message for progressive like michael moore to be sending out? let's talk about that when we take your calls at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv. this is the "bill press show." join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

of sununu, you're wrong. mitt romney, you're wrong. we need more teachers, not fewer teachers and more cops and more firefighters that support our

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right. 25 minutes after the hour now on this friday, august 31. good to have you with us. jamal simmons in studio as a "friend of bill." we're talking tampa republican national convention.

mitt romney's acceptance speech last night. clint eastwood's weird performance. but i do have to ask you sometimes we're our own worst enemy, i'm afraid, jamal. michael moore who i have always loved, been to every one of his movies, he was the champion of universal healthcare, you know, fahrenheit. 9-11. but he gave an interview with "huffington post" yesterday and he said it is all over. romney is going to win because they're going to have more money so we may as well get used to saying president mitt romney. >> yeah, you know, michael moore has been -- he has made some good movies. he's from michigan like i am. he made the good movie about flint. he's a little bit of a loose cannon. in 2004, he came and did an event for us when he was supposed to be endorsing general clark in new hampshire and talking about general clark's -- and he attacked the president as a draft dodger. it sent our campaign into a

whirlwind. >> bill: thank you michael moore. >> thank you for that. so, you want him on your side but you don't necessarily always want him out-front. >> bill: he has to understand, he has nothing to do with the obama campaign. >> yeah. >> bill: not really a spokesperson in any way for the progressive movement but you know, you're right. the best way to describe him is a loose cannon. i prefer the word idiot. jerry is calling from detroit. hey, jerry. hello. >> caller: listen, i've been hearing a lot of these conservative radio talk hosts talk about the supposed diversity of the republican party by having you know, tokens like -- they're probably going to have alan west on later. they're talking about they claim this makes the party more diverse and as a black man die believe that for a second. >> bill: well, they did their best -- thanks, jerry for the call. jamal, they did their best. we talked about this right at

the top to put just about every latino or african-american face on stage that they could. >> absolutely. >> bill: but still doesn't mask the reality. >> it doesn't at all. first of all, mia love, i kind of -- her story and what she did, she had a really good presentation. i don't want her to go to congress but she would be great as a tv personality or something. but i think in general what's going on on the floor of the convention is not anything like what's going on on the stage. we've seen that now in the last couple of conventions. >> bill: it is nice to have marco rubio on stage. i thought did he a great job. very attractive candidate but the republican party's official platform is no comprehensive reform and making english the official language wage. >> one fact, both governor sandoval of nevada and martinez neither one got the majority of latino votes when they ran. >> bill: didn't know that. we'll take a quick break from politics to talk mars.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." cover the convention. but only current puts you and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right. 33 minutes after the hour. on friday. august 31. going into the labor day weekend. and we will be live at the democratic convention next week in charlotte. but with all of the attention on -- on tampa florida and charlotte, north carolina. life is not all about politics. there are other people doing some very, very important work. one of the most exciting things going on, i think is the

exploration of mars right now. jamal simmons in studio with us. democratic strategist. but i'm very excited about the reports that we've had from mars and curiosity. >> absolutely. >> bill: we want to check in on how we're doing. what we've learned so far. and we're joined by laboratory -- i'm sorry. the jpl research scientist working with nasa, dr. luther beagle this morning. good to you have with us. >> good to be here. >> bill: curiosity as now we understand, on its way moving ever so slowly toward this mountainside is it or so of 400 meters away? >> yeah. we're moving to a place called triple plain. it's got a name -- i'm going to pronounce it wrong. but it is called galag. we've called it that because we have a naming convention. we've named this pretty

interesting. we'll explore and see what's there. >> bill: how long will it take you to get there? 400 meeters is not a long distance. >> it is about a quarter of a mile. we're driving right now around 30 to 40 meters per day. it will take about ten days to get there if we go in a straight line. if we see something interesting along the way we'll stop and check it out. >> bill: what have we learned so far from curiosity? >> well, we've just come out of the checkout phase. we use the first two and a half, three weeks to make sure all of the instruments are working correctly. and everything seems to be working within specs and that's what we've learned so far. we also learned we're in a great location. there is a lot of cool geological feetures for us to play with. >> bill: this is jamal simmons, hi, good morning. i want to ask you a question about this naming convention. how does one get invited to the naming convention and what happens? where you decide these things. >> all right, so it is all --

none of it is official. there is an international body that approves names. the national body, an row nim iau. we get together and we say okay, now we're going to name -- i know -- the mars exploration recoveries did this a lot. they said let's pick out science fiction writers. we'll name targets for science fiction writers. right now we're still in -- all of our names are small towns throughout america. and as we go further in the mission, we will pick out names of other famous explorers or famous science fiction writers. >> bill: so these are names. these names are going to be there like forever right? >> no. >> bill: just for this mission? >> they're not really official. they're more for us so that we know what we're all talking about instead of giving it a number. >> so the official name is like

qrstuv or something. >> yeah, the official name is the crater at 30 degrees south 40 degrees north. >> bill: here's what i am curious about curiosity. they say they're going to be able to tell what kind of rocks are there. what kind of soil is there. what kind of chemicals. how can they? they might be able to take a picture of it or something but they're not sending this stuff back to earth. right? >> we have instruments that can do this. we have a couple of instruments remote instruments, one is that laser that can tell what elements are in a lock and if you know what elements are in a rock, you can tell what kind of rock it is. we also have inside on the arm we have another instrument that will tell what kind of elements there are called the alpha proton spectrometer. that will let us know what elements are there. we can actually do mineralogy with the x-ray defraction

spectrometer. there are a lot of cool instruments. >> bill: do you actually scoop up soil? >> we can scoop up soil and we can drill. >> bill: drill? >> that's what i do. >> so the rover is like a big swiss army knife. with motors and it can dig and drill and cut into things? >> it's got a drill. it can open things, yes. it is scooping and we have all -- a whole bunch of state-of-the-art instruments that we can actually analyze rocks and soils and things which is kind of -- will tell what mars was like. >> bill: so you're pleased with the -- your landing and the fact that everything is working. how long is this mission going to last? >> it is scheduled to last for at least two more years. and then if we still have power and we're still operational we'll continue to go. the previous mars mission opportunity which is still going around has been there for -- i want to say almost ten years

now. >> how far away are the two missions? the two machines? >> i should know this. it is in the order of 1,000 kilometers. >> so they're in the same part of the martian landmass or whatever. >> it is way, way far away. yeah. on the other side of the planet. i think it is a better way of saying. >> bill: no plans to get together. >> no, no. i think -- >> christmas gathering or something? >> long time to spend up there until we show up. >> opportunity has gone about 25 kilometers and i think total we're planning on traveling a little bit over that. >> if you can say the one thing that would be like a stellar home run thing to learn or see in your dream book of the rover what would be the kind of magical moment over the next year? >> bill: you see an eyeball. piering back at you. >> anything moving. >> i would like to find a lot of organic material. we have mass spectrometer on

board. with the drill, we can search for it. that's one of the things we're looking for. >> bill: have you seen, on this mission evidence of water or ice? >> not yet. we're actually taking some readings today with one -- with the russian contribution that's called the neutron spectrometer. we should be able to tell how much water is in the upper meter. of the soil. we should be getting that data back i think later tonight. >> bill: a research scientist there with curiosity. i saw in your notes that you guys are operating on mars time, right? look, it is tough enough for us here -- we're on the east coast. you're on the west coast. which sorry i really appreciate your getting up this early. it is tough enough. i'm from california. still when i make a call from coast-to-coast, i have to remember which coast i'm on and

whether i add three hours or subtract three hours. what the hell is mars time? >> the martian day is 24 hours and 39 minutes. so every day we start our day 39 minutes later. when it first landed, our day started around midnight. now it is starting around 3:00 p.m. that will continue to go for another 60 or so days, earth days. the only way i know what day it is because i have kids that go to school. so i have to wake up at 6:30, 7:00 and get them ready and that helps me know what day it is. people who don't have kids are kind of losing their mind a little bit. >> you're just starting your day later and later every day. >> every day. we're coming in at 3:00 p.m. and two weeks from now we'll be coming in at midnight again. >> bill: do you have mars clocks? >> yes. there is actually an app for that. >> bill: there is, really? >> i have a mars app and we open

it up all the time and i have it actually on my computer, too. to let me know where i am. >> bill: they have the wrist watches that show paris and new york. he's got one with los angeles and mars. >> you can get a mars watch too. >> bill: so he's living -- you're living mars time and earth time kind of earth days and mars days back to back, right? or no, that's the same time. >> that's the same time. >> can i ask one question, bridge politics and science. >> bill: this is dangerous! >> absolutely. >> bill: you do not have to answer. >> so last night i think mitt romney said that the flag on the moon is still there. >> yes. >> do we know the flag on the moon is still there? >> we haven't taken a picture of it but unless, you know, i can't imagine what would have possibly happened to it. it should be there forever. unless it gets hit by an incoming meteorite or something. >> we don't have a special

camera that monitors it every so often? >> no. there's no special camera. we can take pictures of the old mars landers and we've taken some pictures of those. from -- but i don't think we have anything around the moon right now that would take a picture of the old -- >> bill: any plans for going back to the moon? >> we keep talking about it. i know there was -- we just launched a spacecraft -- lunar gravity. and everybody -- we keep talking about sending humans back. i guess a lot of it depends on what the program ends up doing. i think there are plans to do that. >> bill: okay. dr. beegle, do you have a mohawk? >> i'm actually -- i'm very upset about that. i don't have hair. and i can't do that. i would love to do that. >> i feel you brother. [ laughter ] >> bill: well, it is not the

only qualification for working at jpl i guess right? >> no, it's not. >> bill: great work. congratulations on this extraordinary mission. you make us all proud dr. beegle. >> thank you so much. stay tuned. >> bill: we'll be back and check in with you again. it is a great moment for this country to see your mission. it will go on and on and on. we'll come back down to earth here with jamal simmons and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you.

join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. (vo) ...after the premiere of joy behar: say anything get irresistibly clean and fresh carpets in your home with resolve deep clean powder. the moist powder removes three times more dirt than vacuuming alone while neutralizing odors for a clean you can see, smell and really enjoy. don't just vacuum clean. resolve clean.

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.

>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: it is the "full court press" on this friday, august 31. morning after the republican national convention. we'll continue our conversation with jamal simmons democratic strategist here. but first, you know, many speakers at the convention. they made this point. i'm sure a lot of speakers will make the point too, there are too many americans who are hurting these days and if you're one of them and wondering how you can make -- and having a hard time making ends meet at the end of each month, i urge you to consider incomeathome.com. they are america's leading work from home business, great way to supplement whatever income you have coming in right now. you can do it no matter your age, education or experience. you can literally earn money on your computer from your kitchen table 24/7. so if you're sick of living paycheck to paycheck, worried about job security or

retirement, if your goal is to earn some extra money from home part-time or full time, incomeathome.com. check them out. they're even giving away $1,000 to somebody just for checking them out. and do you so by going to the web site, incomeathome.com. that is income at home.com. now, the take away, jamal, the time we've got left. your take away from this republican national convention. i have to say you know, our monitors here in the studio. we can watch what the other networks are doing at this time. and i saw on one of them this morning, the headline, honestly, rnc take away. 2016 wide open. now what does that tell you? >> i think that's absolutely right. people clearly are banking on 2016. if you listen to chris christie's speech and marco rubio's speech. all of these guys who talked about themselves for half an hour and then said oh, yeah, and

mitt romney for president on their way out the door. it is clear that people are thinking about what's next. even when you look at ryan, i always felt like ryan was the candidate of the future for the republican party not the candidate interested -- >> bill: it was sort of an audition for 2016. we saw scott walker. you mention paul ryan. god knows chris christie, right put himself out there. condoleezza rice. i mean -- >> she was great by the way. if you noticed something about her speech, she never mentioned the president's name and even in interviews afterwards, she didn't criticize him directly. she would criticize a policy or the american position. but not the president. >> bill: residue diplomatic skills she's got. i forget who some -- marco rubio of course last night. a whole list of them. but implied in that is we don't think we're going to make it in 2012 right? >> that's right. they're in a tough spot.

listen, they are right now polling at you know, somewhere in the 20s with latinos. and you cannot win the presidency without winning 35, 36 38% of the hispanic vote in this country. he's being lapped by double digits. you can't win the presidency -- >> bill: he's down 15, 17 points among women. >> it is just not going to work. >> bill: i saw one reading his rating among african-americans is zero, baby. zero. >> i think -- mccain got 5% last time. and so you know, republicans historically will get 8% or 9%. >> bill: among seniors what is it? >> probably his best demographic, i would think. always been the president's worst demographic. he lost seniors last time. i think 65% or 64%. >> bill: even though his program, his agenda is to gut medicare, gut medicaid, gut social security, seniors still like him? >> i think seniors don't like barack obama. i think that's really the bigger

problem. although i think there are some republicans who are nervous even the seniors in florida who may not for cultural reasons may be fond of the president may be interested in protecting their medicare over mitt romney. >> bill: we should mention -- i told you earlier president obama is going to fort bliss texas, today to meet with military families on the second anniversary of the end of our combat mission in iraq and talking to the troops down at fort bliss texas. just came across the wires that mitt romney on this morning after is going to new orleans today. >> oh, wow, good for him. >> bill: good move on their part maybe to try to show some compassion. >> ann romney did the full ginsburg this morning. i think she was on every single morning show speaking on behalf of the campaign. it is clear they recognize they've gotta find a way to bridge the gap with women if he's going to have a shot. >> bill: on a related issue i don't care whether he's a democrat or republican, happens to be a good democrat, mitch landrieu has been on the job.

>> absolutely. >> bill: and what a contrast -- >> you can tell the difference leadership makes. >> bill: i forget that governor's name under katrina. what was her name? >> i can't remember. >> bill: and the mayor -- i mean, between the two of them together right and -- >> she did not give you a lot of confidence that things were being handled well. what was her name? >> kathleen blanco. >> bill: then you threw michael brown and fema into the mix and george w. bush. it was botched. >> did a fabulous job. >> bill: it was botch botch and botch. came out a lot better this time. are we going to see you? charlotte? >> i'll be there this weekend. >> bill: come on by. we'll be on radio row. thanks for coming in today. >> thanks. >> bill: i have a quick last word here about our friend, michael moore. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

dose of politics from a fresh perspective. >>i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. >>only on current tv.

currenttv