that is all the time we have left this evening. thank you for being with us. hhost: tonight, the president ad voters face-to-face at a town hall. we have the hottest tape. mike huckabee goes on the record. conservatives are fueling the town hall fires but is acorn doing the very same thing, stacking the questions in favor of the democratic plan? greta talks to voters. rush limbaugh and karl rove, the newest comedy team? they are making a guest appearance on a comedy show. if you thought that the town

halls were dying down, think again. even president obama got into the mix today. >> all we get is bull. you cannot tell us how you are going to pay for this. you are saving here, saving over there, you are going to take money here and there but you have no money. the only way you can get that money is to raise your taxes. >> you are absolutely right that i cannot cover another $46 millio46 million people for fre. we will have to find some resources. >> why did you change or strategy to talking about health insurance reform and deciding to vilify the insurance companies? >> the insurance companies in some cases have been constructive. >> it has nothing to do with democrats but fair is fair. american is american.

>> i pray you people in washington will start realizing that you are our employees. >> how many doctors have you talked to and asked them why do you think about the health reform? >> a lot of doctors have endorsed the bill. i have not but they have. >> i want the same opportunity that you have. please do not load me up with debt that i cannot pay. host: mike huckabee joins us live. thank you for joining us. >> happy to be here. host: we saw the town hall meeting, what you have seen on tv is what television loves. are these real americans raising objections or is this kind of

corporate-funded? >> this is a real movement going on. this is not a republican movement. i wish that we had this kind of power. fox ratings are off the charts because we are covering these things but the truth is that people are generally and rightfully concerned about congress. folbaum made a couple of comments that i found very telling. -- obama made a couple of comments that i found very telling. why have we run up deficits if he is concerned? one of the most insightful questions posted was why have we gone from talking about health care to health insurance. the reality is that he has to find a demon, a dragon to slay and he has decided that the health insurance people are who he can go after. host: his chief pollster spoke

at the economic club of canada and they found out that people hate insurance companies so we read framed the debate. he also asked abouwas asked aboe would pay for this. the person tested uask a questie said he was a member of the nra. are we to believe this was a real cross-section? >> i have been to montana, that is one of the most nra saturated states in america. people take their personal liberties very seriously there. even for someone to stand up and say that i am an nra member, this would normally rattle the roof. i bought that was very revealing. let's assume that it was totally on the up and up and very legitimate. there are still some things that the president said today that

are not getting near the target. for example, he continues to use the phrase 47 million. that figure is nonsense. there are a number of people who are uninsured because they don't fill out the forms yet they already qualify for medicaid and medicare. there are 12 million illegal aliens, is the president for to pay for every illegal person? there are a number of people who could afford insurance but they choose not to have it because they would rather have a new track or go to dinner more often. let's be honest about the figure. if we want to cover 5 million americans that cannot have insurance, i don't know anyone who has a problem with that. that is not that difficult. what the president's now wants to do is to demonize the insurance companies. when i hear him say that you can keep the insurance package that you have. here is what i would like to ask

him, and i have the one that you have? i'm pretty sure it will disappear if we end up with a government subsidized system. what i want to know is can i choose the one that you and the members of congress have. if you look at the details of the bill, we will force a lot of companies out of business because when you reimburse less than the actual cost of the service, you end up creating a rationing environment. that is what the back door approach to getting this whole idea of cost containment. if there is cost containment, that means that you pay less than what it actually costs. hospitals and doctors don't do things they would ordinarily do to help the patient. host: the president has talked a lot about paying for these different reforms but cutting out the waste we see in medicare and other programs. he talked about a tax on people that make more than $2.50000 a

year. he had some cheers from the crowds on this. -- she talked about a tax of people that make more than $250,000 a year. isn't a tax when he is proposing? >> this is a pipe dream and one of the most expensive part is the money directly tied to medical malpractice. the fact that we really need some serious reform in the legal aspect. in other words, doctors getting sued. this becomes a huge disruption to their medical practices. it is very expensive, not just the insurance but the cost of fighting often frivolous complaints and lawsuits. then, it means that doctors are doing a lot of diagnostic tests just because the patient needs it but the doctor need to protect himself in case it gets too. if the president is serious about saving money, let him come forward and say that he will address this $34 billion excess

and health care system. host: for the first time, polling shows that the average voter trusts the gop more than they trust the democrats by a margin of 44% to 41%. one gop senator says they're willing to filibuster if what they see on the house side comes to the senate side. is it time for the gop to solidify? >> it is important that the republican show they are not going to block something, they will have meaningful reform. several people have cut their special deals. for example, pharma cut a deal to not have lower drug prices. if the president wants to demonize the insurance companies, what is up with the drug companies? anyone who cuts a deal with them suddenly becomes a good guy and if you don't cut the deal and crawl into bed with the white

house plan, then you will be left on the doorstep. it has become evident that this is old fashioned a chicago style politics. 91% of americans like the health care system we have. we need to get some legitimate forms. let's not throw thousands of pages at the american people. host: thank you for sharing your friday night with us. up next, is president obama losing control of the health care battle? dana perino goes on the record. america's newest comedy team, russia and -- rush and rove.

the ready to cover your neck, we sit down with one of the stars of "true blood." i was in the grocery store when i had a heart attack. my daughter was with me. i took a bayer aspirin out of my purse and chewed it. my doctor said the bayer aspirin saved my life. please talk to your doctor about aspirin and your heart. i'm going to be grandma for a long time. you all want to run your businesses more efficiently, so we've brought in a team of experts to help. one suggestion is to make your shipping more efficient with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service.

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shannon: president obama was on the offensive at a health care town hall meeting in montana. is the president winning or losing the health care reform battle? what is the story with them pushing the agenda in a mass e- mail blast? could they have a list of e- mail addresses even of people that did not want to be included? dana perino joins me. >> thank you for having me. shannon: there are a lot of compliments on everything from the stimulus to the health care reform he is pushing. what did you make of this audience? >> anytime the president goes

anywhere, especially if it is a smaller town, it is a big deal. presidents don't get out west as often as they should. americans are respectful people. no matter how angry they might get, they will treat the president differently than they might treat their congressman. shannon: the polls and the numbers out this week including the new numbers from fox news, not good for the president of the democrats on what they are pushing. how have they mismanaged this message? >> they sought to change minds, they have changed - but they have gone in the wrong direction. people are willing to oppose this now. one of the things they have done, the cbo numbers were really devastating. it is not just that they have taken indications problem, they have a fact problem. unless they're willing to step back, sat the reset button and

figure out a way to write a bill that would fit the principles of president obama, i don't think that america will get behind this bill. many people said it will be a bill that passes, i kind of doubt that. if it does, peggy noonan will probably say it will this be a victory worth having. shannon: it will be something that is water down. >> america fundamentally is not just saying that we are worried about their health care. they are mad at washington. they are angry at the way the system is running. the president could have come out with enough good will across the country and said that "i have said to change washington and i will take a step back and come back to you in october with a bill that will actually meet the principles that i laid out."

shannon: then there is the issue of people receiving unsolicited e-mails. major garrett got into it with the press secretary yesterday about who is on these lists, how are the e-mails being tracked. i don't know if they answer this very well. how do they handle that pr battle because people don't like to think that the white house is tracking them were getting their e-mail in some way that maybe is not appropriate. >> imagine it was three years ago and all of a sudden people across the country started getting e-mails from karl rove. the media would have gone ballistic. they would have demanded answers. i would have felt obligated to give son. that standar-- given some. i would be wondering how they got my e-mail address.

people can get it through various ways but when it is the white house, that is different and kind of creepy. shannon: then you have people asking them to report fishy information. >> that happened last week. they blew it off but it gained enough steam and it made people uncomfortable. even if these e-mail that are being sent are not connected, because the white house did not answer the question, people are coming to the conclusion that the e-mail must've been one of these lists that are afforded to the white house. president obama said that they're not collecting anyone's e-mail address, they just want to get the content so they can respond to the myths. if i was a reporter, i would want to follow this to the conclusion. shannon: i am sure that major garrett is not quite done.

>> i am sure that other reporters are on end. shannon: do you want the government deciding your salary? the white house pay czar is talking about this. did acorn flood meetings to help set the agenda? rush limbaugh and karl rove, american comedy team? what you can get new flights on jet blue.

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shannon: time to report to the pay czar, today seven companies gave proposed salary packages to obama's pay czar. he has 60 days to look at these and approve them. should the government have anything to do with this at all? we are joined by steve moore. i and the stand you are not a fan of this idea. >> i don't like the government

setting pay standards. if you're talking about a case where the institution that government money, that is a different issue. we are talking about banks that are paying back the money they owe to the government and once they do, they should be free. we want our companies to be able to recruit the best talent that they can. to have the government micromanaging them is offensive and it will be very difficult for these banks to succeed. >> these companies, if they had received some money, that is how they got on the list? >> we are on thin the stage for some of the banks are repaying the money. once they do that, set them free. let them organize and manage their businesses. in my opinion, these decisions about executive pay. i agree, in some cases, these

pay scales have gotten out of whack. the question is who should decide what thegoals should be? it should be the boards of directors of each company and the shareholders. -- the question is who should decide what the pay should be? how come these people make $30 million or $40 million? barbara streisand makes $100 million a year, who is to decide what is too much? shannon: we have 60 days to review these packages, can he modify this? >> you raise a good point. this pay czar was never approved by the senate, he was simply appointed by the president. no one knows whether he has the constitutional authority to do this. shannon: how long does he stick

around? >> you don't know. there are 33 czars. have never had so many, we had never had one for pay. i think the important point is that this is something for shareholders decidto decide. there is an executive committee that decides. the other thing that is important is that what we want to do is allowing these pay packages with the interest of the company so that if the company makes money, i have no problem with paying those executives money. if you're talking about g e or fred smith, who begrudges the person making millions of dollars for the company? shannon: a lot of legislation considered on the hill was discouraging risky behavior as

being tied to these packages. the pay czar, is he the judge of this? >> that is what he's supposed to do, set the standards. this is part of the central planning model where we have someone in washington deciding what to the executive salary ies. shannon: this is a unique situation but do you fear this could creep into other industries? >> yes, there could be a special tax imposed on those that make over $30 million or $40 million. there is a kind of class warfare going on in washington. i see it every day. it is a good point to make. this does not to stop with the companies that to a government money. i think it will apply to all companies. it could be through either capping what they could earn or just taxing. shannon: is this an overall

push being about going after the top earnings? >> it is punitive. do we want to punish the banks or do we want to make them profitable again? i want to make them profitable again. shannon: thank you. was the liberal group acorn stacking questions at town hall meetings? the video caused an uproar, congresswoman sheila jackson lee talking on her cell phone while someone was asking her a question at a town hall. greta talks to one of the stars of "true blood." only new dove has nutriummoisture...

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[captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- shannon: critics of the town hall protest say that conservatives are stoking the fires organizing opposition to the health care plan. our liberal groups doing the same thing on the other side of the debate? -- our liberaare liberal groups doing the same thing? one of the iraq war veterans is not satisfied with his health care and he wanted to know why is senator specter wanted to give more money to health care but he ran into a problem. greta: did you get your answer? >> no, i sure did not. what was funny was that i got here about 12:15 and i sat and

mine and we were sitting there and what they were doing -- i sat in line and what we were doing was sitting there. i saw a woman in front of me. she looked like a hippie. she called some people on the phone and she said that they need to get up here. two buses of people came in and they began shouting, what we want, health care. greta: did it seem like there were organized groups that were there or was a constituency that is carp pooled. >> it was two school buses and one van.

they were full of people and they had red shirts on. they were affiliated with a corcorn. they were heckling us. they had a real professional signs. i talked to a couple of them that are younger and they said they did not pay for the buses. they said they just came down with all of them. i don't know who was bringing them in. it is kind of disgusting when they say that our side is astroturf green when it was clearly the other side. greta: why did you should video of that? >> i thought it was ironic that the media was accusing us of

organizing and busing ourselves and to the town halls in order to protest and voice our opinions. when i saw the yellow school buses coming, i knew that this was probably going to be important. i started filming and sure enough. i suspected acorn and union representatives being brought in and that is exactly what happened. greta: how do you know that these were acorn members? >> they were wearing their acorn buttons. they were openly carrying signs and basically stating that they are acorn. >> they had on shirts as well. shannon: griff was their lives. there is nothing illegal about that. there might be hypocrisy if it is what they are accusing the other side of doing.

>> let's point out first of all, a corn confirmed to fox that the best people in. there's nothing illegal about that. it is a free country. -- 8acorn confirm the fox that day bussed people in. this woman organized 80 party, she is upset about the way things are going. she thinks that this is out of control and she wanted to be heard. what happened in the case of this town hall, only 200 people were let in and over 1000 showed up. 80% did not get in. they saw these buses show up and the people went in. they feel that they were taking

advantage of. they did not get to tell their opinion. when the white house has said that there is manufactured anchor, you lose the real important parts. i went to two of the four town halls that senator specter did last week and there was a young man that was 22, he was in medical school and he said, i am halfway through and i have to wonder $50,000 in debt. what is my incentive -- i have $250,000 in debt. what is my incentive? people are upset that acorn would take over. shannon: was there something about the templates or something they were distributing, questions to ask and how to do witit? >> i did not see these but there were pamphlets given out by

acorn people to some of their attendees to ask certain questions. there was organized chancts. the signs were professionally made. i talked to one of the organizers and she said that we are here to balance the debate. the problem is that people on the conservative side that have questions are upset because they feel like they are being drowned out. shannon: many people think that this is more about health care. this is a backwasbacklash againt washington. >> earlier in the week, the press secretary said that this is food for cable television channels. the white house should pay attention.

it is more a referendum on washington and it is a discussion on health care. they have discussions about deficits spending, cash the contras, you name it. i have numerous questions about czars, -- cash for clunkers, you name it. i asked arlen specter and he said they are not racist. shannon: he has not run away from these town halls. he has done a good job. >> he has and we saw a poll numbers released today that he is down a little bit. he either is a politician with a thick skin or he's doing everything he can to get those numbers back up. shannon: thank you. up next, gregg that talks with -- greta talks with an

actor from "true blood." ( siren blaring ) special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform, derailing the debate with myths and scare tactics. desperately trying to stop you from discovering that reform won't ration care. you and your doctor will always decide

the best treatment for you. tell congress not to let myths get in the way of fixing what's broken with health care. learn the facts at healthactionnow.org.

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>> blamed for the mid air collision over the hudson focusing on an air-traffic controller. the controller failed to warn a small plane of another aircraft in its path. moments later, the plane hit a helicopter. all people on both aircraft died. the comptroller was making a personal phone call. >> ththe fda warning of faulty results in personal glucose tests. it raises the risk of insulin overdose. they recommend some people using certain medication should not use certain testing methods. we now head back to "on the record." shannon: it is not every day when a famous actor goes "on the

record." great just sat down with sam trammell from "true blood." >> there is a rumor that you're having a relationship with the deceased. >> yeah. >> you don't seem to broke up about it? are you angry? >> there are bound to be some hard feelings. >> this is bigger and more crazy than you can imagine. >> i'll say. shannon: greta talked about all of this when sam trammell went on the record. greta: nice to see you. >> nice to see you. greta: you have a great show, it doesn't get any better than this? >> no, it is doesn't get any better than that.

we kind of started out slow our first season and it has just been building continuously throughout the two years. we are all kind of blown away. greta: i don't think your competitors would say it started out slow from the beginning. they are probably green with envy at the success of the show. did you know it would be a good show? >> yes, i knew it would be good even before i saw the script. i looked at the title page, it said alan ball, hbo and i was on board. you always hope for something like this but you cannot imagine it. you do the show and you hope the pilot gets picked up. once it does, you hope to get a second season.

the books that the show is based off of, these are really interesting and fun. i just had a feeling when you put alan ball without, he is such a great writer and he puts together a great team of writers, i thought that maybe we could do pretty well. greta: for the people that have not seen the show, what is a shape shifter? >> that is a good question. we are still kind of working that out but as far as we know so far, i am in shape shifter in the show and i can turn into a lot of different animals. i choose to turn into a dog because people are friendly to them. i cannot turn into a person or an inanimate object. basically, animals.

i actually turned into something very big this year and something very small. greta: is the season fully done now? >> yes. we finished about a month ago. it takes us about seven or so months to shoot it. hbo gives us a lot of time to shoot. we have sometimes 13 days to shoot an episode and most shows have about 8. they really give us time. allows us to do the show really well. this set designers do really great jobs with that. it really makes a difference. i feel that the show is a real cinematic experience. greta: is it completely written by the time you start shooting or is constantly written as you

go? >> well, alan ball likes to have everything -- she likes to finish shooting the show way before it comes out. -- he likes to finish shooting the show way before it comes out. this is really so that in case there are problems and their needs to be read shoots, we can do that. those guys are already back in the room breaking times for the third season. they like to be ahead which is not always the case. greta: when do you start shooting the third season? >> i think that we will start shooting in december. we will try to get one in before the new year starts. we had some things happen this year and we were sort of -- we almost did not finish some of the episodes right before they were aired. he wants to get more of a head

start this year. greta: were you interested in vampires when you were a child? >> no, i was not. greta: are you a convert? >> yet, i guess i am. i started reading stephen king is a child and i was trying to scare myself with books. then i started watching scary movies. it is -- i have to tell you, it is so much fun on being on a show like this. i really loved running away from people that are try to kill me. it is a lot of fun. greta: the good news is that it is sunday night at 9:00 p.m., never on at 10:00 p.m. so it never competes with us.

we are so lucky that we don't have to worry about your show. it is a big hit. i wish you continued success and i hope you come back. >> i would love to come back. my pleasure. great to talk to you. greta: i expect that your career is just beginning. i expect more from you in the future. thank you very much. shannon: up next, the best of the rest, rush limbaugh and karl rove teaming up for a comedy. an 11-year-old lands in the interview of a lifetime with president obama. is he the young reporters tumhomeboy. for one flat fee you can fly jetblue for one month.  some lunch.

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shannon: we have been teasing you all along, time for the big news. rush limbaugh is taking a shot on comedy. here are some clues, it is animated, controversial. >> tuesday, i will be off

because i have to take my starring role in the upcoming "family guy." shannon: that's right, he will have some conservatives company on the show. karl rove will also be letting his voice. -- lending his voice. this case clearly has a future, and 11-year-old journalist landed one of the most coveted in their views in the world, president obama. -- this kid clearly has a future. he asked about the economy, improving education, how to handle pbullies. he also asked about school lunches. >> do you have the ability to make school lunches better?

>> we are actually seeing if we can make them more healthy. >> i suggest that we have french fries every day. >> and if you were planning the lunch program, that would be a problem. >> when i interviewed joe biden, he became my homeboy. would you like to become my homeboy? >> absolutely, great job. shannon: think of it as a jetblue buffet. it is all you can fly. they are offering a $599 pass. it is good for one month of on limited travel. it is good from september 8th to october 8th. the passes are only available while supplies last. there you have it, the best of the rest.

coming up, your last call. one more quick round before we turn out the lights. sheila jackson lee caused a firestorm when she was caught on her cell phone at a town hall meeting while a woman was trying to ask her a question. we might know who she was talking to. steven colbert has the scoop. taking its rightful place

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shannon: the video is infamous, sheila jackson lee on herself on while a cancer survivor is asking a question. who was the congresswoman talking to? >> here is where i came to her defense. i happen to know that this was an extremely important phone call and we have isolated the audio. >> hello. >> hello, this is steven colbert. >> stephen. >> boo. boo.