looking in the rudest of health, dylan. >> the wondering of makeup and polyurethane are able to perpetuate any manuel beyond the normal human limits. a pleasure to see you. >> a pleasure to see you. >> we will commence our festivities right now. well, the big story today, flash point. good afternoon to you, my name is dylan ratigan. a lot of happened while we were covering the debt debacle, and keeping with our pledge we're starting with something different today. it's growing increasingly clear that the arab spring will lead to a bloody end. day 4 of government-backed tanks advancing deep into hama. think of the resolve of the

protest ore, do not forget that it's in hama, that president assad's father massacred a palestinian mum of 10,000 people in 1982 to quell another uprising. now residents fear they'll use the distraction that his former egyptian president mubarak's death penalty trial as a way to commit massacre in syria. he was wheeled in today, along with his sons, denied the charges of slaughters hundreds of protesters in the opening days of the uprising that led to his fall. a major reason we're watching the regional uprising beyond our military and economic relationship with it, is our wall either here at home, as we pay for gas and the impact of the 2012 election is at stake depending on the path of stability in that region, but

first the situation on the ground today. david lesh, professor of middle east history, has interviewed the syrian president receivers. also with us colonel an theory shaffer, senior fellow, well versed specifically to the areas where we are seeing these uprisings. tony, is it a rational fear to think that assad and the syrian regime will use the distraction of the egyptian mubarak courtroom theater to murder these people? >> absolutely. i think we're talking about someone who is as bloodthirsty if not more than moammar gadhafi. when we look back on the days of trying to cut gadhafi off and from going into benghazi, this is nothing compared to that. i don't believe we really understood how bad it could get. this is going to get worse. he's done it before, been successful in doing it. frankly because we have such an incoherent policy felon regarding syria and this issue, but other areas, i don't think

there's any credible, even the so-called regime of issues relates to the u.n. you are not going to be effective. >> professor lesh, if they were to go through with anything remotely like the massacre, using the egyptian theater as cover to do that, what sort of ripple effects are we looking at? first of all, i don't think there's any bearing to what they will do. they are in survival mode. they will do what they feel is necessary. secondly, if it does go to the extent of 1982, when i hope it will no and i expect it will not, if it does, it will compel the international community to take more action. will the rhetoric exceed the capacity of the united states to

meet that rhetoric with action? that is the very real problem, because of the conveying mire in libya, will there be no resolve to take any interventionist policy vis-a-vis syria? >> has america tied its hands in so many other wars, regardless of your view of them, is the professor ace assertion right we only have so much dried powder and we've used most of it? >> i think we have. whatever we do with syria, we have to consider the fact we may have to do with sauch and bahrain, because they have similar issues running in parallel. we're talking about governments that are not well liked, so we have to consider that we have already passed our high water mark of action, and frankly we have to think every time we use military forces. i've been talking to constitutional lawyers, talking

to folks who were involved in the planning in libya, and everybody said this would not be quick or kinetic, and do we want to see our involvement? costs which is vital for those in charge of military policy to understand, we have shown so far that we don't understand how to balance military action and other policy tools, state department, commerce, things like that. that's what wore me here. i don't think we have a good past forward. >> do you agree with that, professor? if you do, what do you see as the most obvious or apparent risk to american society, america economy and american reality over the next 6 to 12 months? >> well, i do agree with a lot of that. i've said all along, to really compel the syrian regime to engage in real reform, we had to be successful in a quick manner,

which everyone thought would be fairly easy solve all we can do is relegate ourselves right now to the u.n. security council, maybe the international criminal court toward action, because everybody we can do, we've pretty much already done from the 1979 state department sponsor of terrorism, syria was on the original list, the syrian"ability act, to specifically sanctions on individuals by the obama administration. the simple fact is we don't have much leverage, and to consider as some in washington seem to be doing, on left and right, to take more, you know, bell acompani bellicose and more international -- and i think ratcheting up slowly the interventional pressure while we can, staying in line with the european union and get some arab

stats involved, and the difficulty the colonel already pointed out. that's what we need to do in the short term. >> if you look at the expectation of 2012, the anticipation is that it will be very job centric, debt sent rick, very partisan, and bickering, what is not in the picture is the possibility of increased instability in the middle east in ha potential disruption or spike in energy prices, this doesn't seem like you could rule that out. >> well we can't. as was just mentioned in the previous segment, you have to consider the saudi piece and bahrain piece. we're talking other key countries a lot of folks believe we went into accomplishia, but let me say this. i want to be very clear on this. a lot of folks recognized libya

would not be a quick effort. you and i spoke about this days after. i supreme courted we would go down the path of bosnia. here we are. we're talking about partition. so can we really afford to potentially go into thinks other situations and get ourselves tied. this is where president obama's base will kill him if he engages in more kinetic military fights. this may jeopardizes his base. >> in you were to look at the suggestion that america is the only nation with a vested interest with what happens in the middle east, that would seem misleading. >> absolutely. what allies could we call on who lair or interests relative to syria, relative to these other countries, so that we can then call whoever it may be and say, hey, listen, you want the same thing we want, help us exert real leverage, china, or whoever

it may be, to try to diminish the explosive nature of what's going on. >> well, locally you get the israelis and the turkish who both have had shared interest. i don't know if we want to talk about this, but turkey is on the slide of kind of chaos too. and china is a key, but frankly they would benefit in some ways from the kay on the. they've been insituating themselves in after canned and other less than stable regions to increase their actual ability to leverage situations. if we bring the chinese in, they will leverage the situation, but to their own advantage, which brings up another whole set of issues we have to look at. a pleasure to have the conversation. i always feel smarter when i get to talk to you guys. i appreciate it. with egypt and syria on the brink, with you all could be on the brink of a disastrous spike in the cost of foreign oil. coming up, an honest

conversation about energy, energy alternate activities, and whether there is the political will or even the north star and shared values to get there to get it done. but first thousands of airport employees, this is your congress day -- this is a joke -- being forced to work without pay or in some cases paysing to work. you do guess it, washington and their dysfunction and washington to blame. later, a question, just because scienceant explain the paranormal, does that mean it's not out there 1234. ♪ going up to the spirit in the sky ♪ ♪ it's where i'm going to do ♪ sfloo specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans.

that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. kraft singles. we're rich in calcium to help build 'em up strong. ooh, watch out, bad guys. kraft singles. the american cheese. i'm not looking forward to my flight. try this. bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. no, this is new bayer advanced aspirin... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? great! thanks. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief. twice as fast. test our fast relief. love it, or get your money back. he needs some gellin'. yeahhhhhhh. gellin' is like having a teeny tiny foot masseuse in your shoe. you like ?

nice ! dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles. outrageous comfort, all-day long.

tom me if you've heard this one before the the white house says now -- breaking news, what is that? they're going to focus on jobs. tim geithner climbing that putting people back to work is the most important way to restore the economy. who knew? excuse es for being skeptical, like jake tapper, who had this to say, quote -- it feels like every couple of months i'm reporting the white house is pivoting to a jobs agenda, and something else then happens, but here we are, pivoting once again. but hey, think about it like this. maybe the pivot is not the jobs. maybe they meant we're pivoting to reelection in 2012. the white house announcing a midwest bus tour in later later this month on the pivot, you know, the midwest where battleground states like ohio or iowa.

time for the megapanel. "the washington post" writer, j jonathan capehart, and imogen, and rob cox. you're contributing as we speak, robert. >> absolutely. >> are we too skeptical? is it too skeptical to look at these politicians, whether it's nancy pelosi, the republicans, the president talking blathering jobs, yes, we're in favors of jobs, maybe they'll think we're creating jobs? >> remember, this whole issue we just went through was about trying to reduce the proportion of debt to gdp, but if you think about it, that's a numerical calculation, right? so you can deal with one side of it or deal with the other side. if you deal with the other side, that is growth with gdp, with the economy. you solve all these problems. you diminish the size of the

debt. you diminish the deficit, and guess what else happens when the economy grows this people are working. >> really? it's crazy. but nobody has dealt with. now we can talk about it, pivot all you like, but we've done nothing despite this moment when arguably there could having a discussion about the mathematics. >> the rnc says obama pivoted 15 times. remember the great big jobs recovery road show, we now have a jobs bus that obama is on. no wonder we're all a bit dubious, with 92% .2% unemploym. >> and obama isn't the only one. >> before the midterm elections, one of my first friends on

twitter was john boehner. i was thrilled by that, thank you, mr. speaker. >> but every day there had be a tweet, mr. president, where are the jobs? mr. president, where is the jobs? now that he's speaking, people are tunnels on him, mr. speaker, where are the jobs? this is not just the president's job, if you will. it's congress's job, it's washington's job to put people back to work. unfortunately jake tapper is right. that's because the administration has been gob smacked are few months by some calamity that takes -- >> you're letting them off the hook. >> no, i'm not. >> they're pivoting until -- >> robert, how about any of of pivoting, how about engaging in a legitimate prosperity debate which says what reforms do we need to do that will create growth? i don't know the answer to those questions. >> it's the political

uncertainly that is causing so much of this problem with jobs. >> you disagree with that. and they are not invests in america. they don't know the environmentals. >> i disagree with that. >> i think a bigger barrier to your uncertainty is a banking system that's more profitable to speculate and export capital than to lend it domestically. a trade agreement that makes it more profitable to extract capital and a tax code that makes it more profitable to keep money offshore. the same businesses that claim uncertainty are the same ones lobbying the government for tax code, trade policies and banking policies, all of which make it very certainly that as they take capital out of america, they will be profitable, so the whole uncertainty rhetoric that is certainly driving money offshore

makes me -- >> you can't argue there is a kind of certainty, and that's something you mentioned, dylan, the banking system. what we basically did in response to a crisis, was to create these banks that don't have any great incentive, and actually the ones that do, small banks have their own troubles, but they are the engines of credit for small business. they are basically hosed. >> is that a wall street term? >> it is. small banks pay more to get capital, whether it's in the form of deposits or through the capital markets. therefore they can't go out as profitably and make loans, because they are not sanctified as too big to fail. there is a certainty there. a certainty that's reflected in the market. >> that i think is the issue, there's a certainty that obama

and the republicans, and -- this is not an obama issue, right? this is an obama democratic leadership issue, republican leadership issue, all politicians issue, which is we're not going to deal with this banking system, in fact we're going to do whatever larry and bop and everybody else want us to do, and it's not working. >> that gets to the question i wanted to ask rob about, i don't know, five pivots ago, which is isn't it unfair to completely blame the president? no matter who the president is, but the fact there is no job cede eggs? my specific question is, what exactly can the president of the united states do to create jobs? you know, to ask the president, mr. president, where are the jobs? he's not the mayor of new york. >> how would you answer that, rob? >> you do need to come up with policies that are pro-growth. things like trade. okay, i know we probably have our differences on trade, but there is nobody out there in the world slamming their fists on

the table saying free trade, open markets, let's go. we're doing these little things with panama, which is kind of a bush administration relic. >> which is not good for jobs. >> but not going to democratic oha, which would create a real global opportunity. >> and i would argue whether it's the president that said, listen we have to reform american banking that incentivizes lending, we have to revise the tax code. or the tax code. >> and the president could advocate for all of those types of policies at least initiate a debate that could lead to jobs quickly. >> you can argue with that. you go to america's airports -- >> but the issue is not arguing infrastructure, but the financing of how would you would do the infrastructure. everybody would love a bridge or

airport, but the debate is who will finance it. >> and the costs are too high. >> exactly. because we overspend. you could have a -- you don't have to agree with me or with him, but the president i think could and should be leading such a debate if he was in favor of jobs, in my opinion. let's talk about faa, shall we? apparently most of our government is against jobs. except for the preservation of their own jobs at our expense. washington went home for a vacation between their payroll intact. they did not preserve the job of about 75,000 -- get this -- faa workers. literally, i wish i was making this up, it's so preposterous. i don't know how this congress -- anybody who's sitting in this congress expects to get reelected. >> i decided to read about this from the international media, because they have the right

sarcastic tone. basically apparently it's all down to 13 rural airports and $200 million of subsidies that happen a year. >> you say they're arguing about it? >> yes. >> but they are losing $200 million a week in airline taxes, because of this. so a a loss over what? have i lost something here? are they being sarcastic? >> no, in this case the sarcasm is warranted. it's astounding to me that a congress that rails -- particularly in the house that rails about jobs, jobs, jobs, where are the jobs? and -- >> or just getting after it in general. they're going to collect a paycheck, yet at the height of 9.2 unemployment, they're going

to left town you've head hostage a very important function. >> which is a valuable service. >>ible we do total free markets, which i would -- even my most -- my favorite -- most rabbit free market ears would never suggest doing so, but you basically are holding something completely hostage, which is just wrong. it will be interesting to see how the electorate responds action because the indictment is so uniform -- >> let a plane fall. >> the panel stays. will the arab uprisings finally force americans to rise up themselves against foreign oil? [ groans ] [ marge ] psst.

constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... thanks. host: could switching to geico reon car insurance? or more

host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things? man 1: send, that is the weekend. app grapgic: yeah dawg! man 2: allow me to crack...the bubbly! man 1: don't mind if i doozy. man 3: is a gentleman with a brostache invited over to this party? man 1: only if he's ready to rock! ♪ sfx: guitar and trumpet jam vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. [ female announcer ] something unexpected to the world of multigrain... taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. with a variety of flavors, multigrain pops with pringles.

the arab spring, as we discussed, boiling over into the summer months, sure to continue one way or the other in the event that those events cause significant disruption, which is possible, may not problem. think about an oil spike again at some point, maybe next year. are we any more prepared to adapt to the next oil spike than the last one or the one before that or the one before that? one compelling alternative that we have in abundance in this country, as you notice, is natural gatt. we have talked a lot about that, and i confide personally am torn on the issue, and i'm the first

to say i'm not adequately informed to exercise any particular judgment, but when i'm in discussions with t. boone pickens and others, it's easy to understand the argument about the clean-burning domestic energy source, but then when you start dealing with the individuals at extraction, or the actual residents in places like pennsylvania is their patriotic -- our specialist is ben grumbles, former assistant administrator for water for the epa.

are we any closer to know whether the disruptions in the water supply, the disruptions in the deepwater drilling, the potential toxicity above the surface which seem to be the three areas of debate is being resolved? is anyone even resolving this? >> we're getting there. the jury is still out, but we're finding there's a world of difference between just say no and drill baby drill, and frac with caution. there is definitely not at mission accomplished stage yet in terms of the water footprinting and the impact of water on water of natural gas drilling. do you have any insight -- are we any more prepared to deal

where a major oil spike today than a year ago? >> in terms of price? sill think we're getting there. we need as a country to be paying more for the water. >> it's a free market they're. for them to function they must have pricing integrity. >> and there has to be a social safety net, too. water is a right -- you know, it's a right to life issue. >> ben, let me just ask you a basic question, which is, you know, dylan outlined all the horrible things, you know, that are the result of fracing.

is there a clean way to do this? >> yes, there is, a cleaner way, kind of like the clean coal issue. it's cleaner. there's a lot of misperception, a lot of receipt sick saying that fracking is causing the flaming faucet scenario. it's not necessary. it can change the way of life for a people in a community. when you talk about tens of thousands of new wells bringing job, but you've been to take it seriously. tech nolgts is being developed. the industry is being pushed to take it more seriously, to look at the impact on water. they are paying the money to develop better technology, so it doesn't endanger streams is the questions of aquifer, that's where the light needs to continue to shine. so far the epa, when i was

involved, it wasn't a robust study going into every place in america. it was based on literature. we did not see a risk to drinking water underground from fracking, but it was a snapshot. it was never to be seen as a justification for except from the clean water act. >> is the industry involved? they were exempt from certain things. the oil industry, the energy in journal has been reluctant to take on self-regulation. it's in their interests for everything to see this as basically a safe patriotic solution to our problems. are you seeing a total change? >> a total change? i would say a gradual change, and in some cases, go among different actors, different leaders in the industry, there's

significant improvements. >> but you still have wilecaters out there. you're absolutely right. >> you'll need that moment when bp had this hole and everything went crazy. we're going to have some moment like that, someplace in pennsylvania. >> listen, if you look -- >> with the chesapeake -- >> listen, the problem is they do this in the rural areas where the population is limited, so it doesn't get the same media coverage. but when the you go into those rural communities and see the few people that may live there, which they're no less of a person than anybody else, the level of toxicity and disruption in some of those water supplies is absolutely catastrophic. it's just not affecting everybody in new york or boston, so it's notsh it's affecting ten people on a farm.

>> do you think it could be the big solution, or actually should it be taken off the -- >> it is a big solution. it's not the big solution. i think you ought to keep your eyes on what states are doing, whether it's new york, pennsylvania, texas, colorado, all of the states see this as a fed verse state issue, and they want to step forward, require more sdrougs of the chemicals involved and also regulate it more closely. sill think the good news is this issue has not gotten a lot of attention, though there's a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric, from an environmental health standpoint, there are improvement it is taking place

that the spotlight being shown, the absolute imperative need for jobs and for energy security are going to make it more expensive because of the environmental questions, about i think the states and agency, including the federal agencies oversee some of this are going to bring more reform. >> ben, we pressure you helping us learn more. it's nice to see you again. >> nice to see you again. >> and it's great to see you guys. we're going to take a little break. can an exploiting oil crisis force an energy conversation if it happens during an election year. does it trump jobs in the mind of voters. we'll get in depth into those questions in our new blog post at the newly revamped dylanratigan.com, and check it out. . coming up, some comic

relief. marvel unveiling a new spider man. chronologically i'm sixty years old. is it the new forty, i don't know. i probably feel about thirty. how is it that we don't act our age? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves. we're the vargos and we created our wills on legalzoom. finally. [ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love.

go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles, enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief to the site of pain. it's clinically proven to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®.

comic book fans are in for a major change when they pick up the latest issue. a brand-new spiderman, no, not his outfit, but a different person. peter parker was killed by the green gob ling, so miles morales has stepped in to take over. the multiracial spiderman, the first in 9 comic book world. and it's mixed reaction. spidey writer was undeterred saying morales is a spiderman for the 21st century, who is reflective of our culture and society. kudos to both. up next, some ghost stories. we're talk to the author who's

out to explain the unexplained. y riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade and check my investment portfolio, research stocks, and set conditional orders. wait, why are you taking... oh, i see. hey max, would it kill you to throw a guy a warning bark? [ dog barks ] you know i wanted a bird. [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed.

when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses...

not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp.

when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. welcome back. our next guest says he went on a mission to find an explanation for his family's ghost story and failed, but found along the way just because a scientist cannot explain an event does not make it any less of part of the human experience or any less unexplained.

steve volk, the author of fringeology. obviously we have to know the story to get going here. >> i grew up with it as a kid. i was about 6 years old when the events happened, but i have some memory of them. it would happen only at night in the middle of the night. the kids upstairs, statistic parents downstairs. my sisters complained of worse things happening in their room, the blankets being pulled from their bed. the bed frame would shake as if somebody had grabbed the bedpost right through a closed door. now, my parents focused. not so much as dissolving but passing right through this.

it dun financial -- it was too loud and went on for too long, long minutes. my father was a practices catholic time, and he had the priest come over and blessed the house, and the things were worse. the noise went on, longer or louder. we went downstairs, our parents were thinking of leaving for the night. at the hit tess top of the stairs and then came down one step at a time.

>> come on, man. come on. >> yeah, my fare describes it as sounding like a hulking child throwing a tantrum until it got to the bottom with a big two-footed dismount. and we never heard it again, whatever it was. by that narrative, the president effected a delayed exorcism with a bit of a dramatic flewish. >> like a woman leaving as she slams out. >> that's one interpretation. that's what i'm thinking. >> what do you do with a story like that? i'm a mainstream reporter. the one thing i've been clear on is i probably shouldn't tell this story publicly, because there's such a stigma attached to it. when you look at statistics on the subject, around 7 on% of

americans hold a paranormal belief between 15 and 30% believe they've seen a ufo, had a psychic experience or a direct experience with a ghost. you turn on terrorism, there's -- and joe there's a taboo that remains discussing it seriously. maybe people feel like they need a permission slip? the book is to act at that permission. >> just because you can't explain it doesn't mean the symptoms don't exit, albeit unexplained. >> think of a ufo. nobody wants it to remain unidentified, so you get believes on one end saying it had to be e.t.'s spacecraft, and

other people are saying a ball of lightning or weather balloon, but if we had enough information, it wouldn't be unidentified. >> which goes to the human discomfort with taking up residency with information that's unexplained. >> for me to accept the family story with a very rational life i lead, i have to accept that i don't have an explanation for it. is and it's heart for preto know -- for people to understand, where we process fear and anxiety. >> so basically dealing with the unexplained the neurology reacts negative. >> so we try to force a conclusion. >> for a believer, whatever happens in my house becomes a ghost. >> you're you're a fruitcake.

>> i'm here to say it's unexplained and we should be able to deal with that. >> and stop at unexplained. i agree that's critically important, but why do you think the ability to not have to force yourself into an explanation in general, not just with general, he must have done it because they bribed him or it was a brilliant moment. >> we believe believe systems, and then when something comes along, the tendency is to reject it, and obvious, and you see it politically, the tendency is to el reject both the story and the person telling it. that's how we end up demonizing our opponents, not working together. we start a debate rather than a conversation. >> whereas if we have the acceptance of unknown and

unexplained variables, but the concrete sharing of valuing of how we're going to relate to each other and a common goal, we're in a different situation. >> completely different situation. there's a lot of new science i get into in the booic with people researches ways that we can better relate to one another and talks about these topics. right away some people want to reject that. but really meditation is just focusing on a thought or an idea. by focusing on the idea that i want to get along with you, i want to understand you, it puts you in a totally different framework instead of i wanting to beat you in a debate. >> what if i want to solve a problem with you aened ant don't know how to do it, but i want to work on it. >> that would be great. >> it's a real pleasure to meet you, steve. >> thanks for having me. >> here's to accepting that the

unexplained is actually sun explained. >> coming up on "hardball," but first ari takes his seat in the daily rant. of the trade... then break out our doing clothes and get rolling. let's use some paint that helps us get the job done in record time and makes a statement when we're finished. we're lowering the cost of a new favorite color. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. take your painting skills to the next level at one of our free paint workshops. take your pso i takekills one a day men's 50+ advantage. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work.

booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center recommends the custom-fit orthotic that's best for your tired feet. foot-care scientists are behind it. you'll get all-day relief. for your tired achy feet. for locations, see drscholls.com. thank you... just don't feel like they used to. are you one of them? remember when you had more energy for 18 holes with your buddies. more passion for the one ya love. more fun with your family and friends. it could be a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. come on, stop living in the shadows.

you've got a life to live. [ male announcer ] so don't blame it on aging. talk to your doctor and go to isitlowt.com to find out more.

yesterday on the show, i signed a pledge. i promised you, my loyal viewers, that we would not lead off our show discussing the debt ceiling for the balance of the week. today, as you noticed, i hope, i kept that pledge, even if i didn't really sign it. but ari didn't sign the pledge at all. i robo-signed mine, and ari has

the daily rant. >> as everyone knows, this week's agreement to raise the debt ceiling takes a page out of a classic washington playbook. politicians set up a commission for the problems they don't want to tackle. is that a bad thing? not always. commissions and special chron gressional committees can bring a laser focus to a single problem or investigation. i think they're especially useful when the government cannot be trusted to investigat pearl harbor to the 9/11 attacks. the 9/11 commission was effective and innovative. it took its findings to the public in a best-selling book and a report that was downlouded over 1 million times. so, look, some commissions can work. i'm not against all of them. but i am against this joint committee in the debt ceiling deal. some people are obviously calling it a super congress, which is a real misnomer.

by design, this committee will be congress on steroids. all of the bad habits, but worse. it's got only six hand-picked members from both parties, no outside experts, economists or independent statemen in contrast to past efforts. if anything, the idea here is that politicians in congress are the only ones who have the ideas to fix or fiscal plans. i don't think anyone thinks that's the case. so what are they going to do? one of the things that this commission has is an idea that basically, no matter who is involved, no matter what they decide, they're going to have a rigged outcome. this is the big number, the 1.5 trillion, so the since congress can't agree to anything woe a debt crisis or without a forced or manufactured cries, they have to pass this future plan to cut 1.5 trillion. or they're going to face huge

arbitrary automatic cuts to military and social programs. now, you've heard that part. why? why is that the deal? the idea here, and it's a stupid one, is that republicans oppose military cuts and democrats oppose social cuts, so to preserve those interests they're all going to feel pressure to act, like this is two sacred cows strapped together by a time bomb. you notice the trend here? it's governing, but only by threat. i don't want support holding military spending hostage in exchange for, like, you know, taxing millionaires to pay their share of the deficit. the responsible way is to consult with the experts and critics on specifics, not trigger rand done illogical cuts, and i think that brings us to the last ingredient in this farce. the idea that these cuts are

magically going to result in equal pressure on both sides. here is how the white house explains it -- automatic cuts to defense and critical programs like infrastructure and education would be unacceptable to many republicans and democrats alike, creating pressure for a bipartisan agreement. so in theory, both sides oppose these automatic cuts, so both sides will act rationally to compromise and do their part, to avoid the outcomes they oppose. right. many republicans oppose default, too, but in practice, you and i know this gop congress that is proven itself willing to risk great harm in pursuit of its agenda. in poker, sometimes your face matters more than your hand. that's why it's pocker. unlike president obama, we know there are plenty of republicans willing to bluff their way into bad policy, and to use the automatic cuts as a